Reconciliation
by PhoenixAlthor
Summary: Ok, what happens if you put two enemies in a locked room? There is no way of getting out unless a miracle happens like the both of them forgetting their differences. What if these two people were James Potter and Lily Evans? James loves Lily but she hate
1. Default Chapter

CHAPTER ONE - THE FOUR STAGES  
  
Ok, what happens if you put two enemies in a locked room? There is no way of getting out unless a miracle happens like the both of them forgetting their differences. What if these two people were James Potter and Lily Evans? James loves Lily but she hate James so because of that James hates Lily while still being in love with her. Confused?  
  
What if they were both in there without wands? Lily wouldn't be able to do any magic to make James shut up. James wouldn't be able to make it any more bearable by shutting her up. They were in there for the long run if they weren't going to make up.  
  
Hello people! It's your fave Penguin here! This is another L/J fan fic. I'm obsessed with them. Anyway I've got another L/J on the go, it's called "A Day To Never Be Forgotten" and if you haven't read it, please please please do! And I promise I will post the second chapter up soon (I hope) I've just got to get inspiration. Anyway back to this fic. Anything you recognise, I don't own, but anything you don't is mine. Ok, got that sorted. I hope you enjoy the story, coz I certainly enjoyed writing it.

"God damn you Potter!" Lily fumed, "Can't you control your friends?!"  
  
James sighed. They were both in a locked room, somewhere in Hogwarts. Where, he wasn't certain. But he did have a sneaky suspicion. Him and his so called friends had used the 'Room Of Requirement' many a time hiding from Pringle the caretaker after having been sneaking around the school. They would eat what they had stolen out of the kitchens in here. But the room was different tonight. It was bare apart from the obvious Gryffindor decorations of red and gold; the carpet was a deep red and on the walls hung dusty tapestries. A single sofa was at the end of the room. It was also in a crimson colour. It looked very comfortable and cosy, but he wasn't going to sit down on it. He wasn't going to do anything until he had thought things through. _I'm going to kill them; I swear they are going to pay for this!!!  
  
_They were both standing on opposites sides of the room, glaring at each other as if the other person were a very contagious disease. The hate that was radiating around them was overwhelming. James was furious with his friends! They had stunned him in their dormitory just as he was about to turn in for the night and then the next thing he remembered was that he had been revived in here, seeing Lily glare at him. The same had obviously been done to her. And she wasn't happy. Especially as both their wands had been taken away from them.  
  
So they had resorted to ignoring each other. Knowing that if either of them spoke, it would turn out to become an argument. Reminding himself that Lily had just spoken, after ten minutes of silence, he wasn't sure if he should answer her or not. He knew many of his comebacks would cause her to become worse than she was already. But he had to say something. They couldn't just stand there in silence the whole night. He wanted to go back to bed.  
  
"Oh, what, so all this is their fault now?" He spat back. "And I suppose your friends are completely innocent in this fiasco? I suppose they never stunned you, and dragged you here?" Wrong thing to say James, wrong thing to say.  
  
He studied her face as he waited for the inevitable explosion. Her deep red hair that fell gracefully around her shoulders, glinting in the lamplight reflected her mood perfectly. Red heads were always fiery. And he had had first hand experience at that many a time. Also her emerald green eyes shone maliciously in his direction. He remembered a time when those eyes had held him in high regard, had held the signs of love. She was so beautiful when she wasn't angry with him. But that hadn't happened in a long time. They had been enemies; well true enemies since the start of the year when he had played a cruel joke on her. And boy, did he regret it now! There had been times before now when she hadn't liked him because he had been so arrogant and conceited, but this time, she had a completely different reason. And she was never going to let him forget about it, ever.  
  
"This would have been Black's idea no doubt! I bet it was him who thought about this huge prank!" "Why do you always have to blame everything on him? James yelled back. "Just cause he dumped you ages ago and made a fool of you! He regrets ever doing that! You have NO idea what he is really like!"  
  
Lily was slightly taken aback by this. But recovered quickly enough by retorting, "This has nothing to do with that. I was over that years ago. Me and Sirius are good friends if you hadn't noticed -"  
  
"- But you've still landed the whole blame on him haven't you, and -"  
  
"- And you hate us being friends don't you. You may think you're hiding it well but I know that you are jealous!"  
  
"Jealous!" James spat. "Why the HELL would I be jealous?" _Oh my god, she's noticed. Get a grip of yourself James. I am not jealous! Yes you are. NO I AM NOT, I AM NOT JEALOUS!!!  
  
_Calming down, Lily rearranged herself. Made her face a cool mask, while her eyes were green ice. Speaking slowly and evenly she spoke her answer.  
  
"Because you have never truly gotten over me," she said. "All this arguing and rivalry is because you are envious of what me and Sirius have got. I can talk to him, unlike you, who if I go anywhere near now, you will either drool or scorn at me."  
  
"But -" James began to say.  
  
"I can't stand it. You hate me now because the way I treat you. And to be honest you deserve it. Especially after what you did on the first day back."  
  
"Look -"  
  
"And another thing, you broke my heart, which was something you promised you would NEVER do." Lily persisted. "Do you remember that?"  
  
"Evans -"  
  
"Oh, and what about -"  
  
"SHUT UP!" James shouted.  
  
Silence.  
  
"Thank you. So can I speak now?" James said. "Look, I know I have hurt you and I deeply regret it. I know I deserve everything I get from you. And I know that you hate me for what I have done. Have you never made a mistake?"  
  
Silence.  
  
"I don't hate you." came a timid voice from the other side of the room. James could hardly believe that voice came from Lily after all her ranting and raving. But he was still astounded by what she had said.  
  
"Uh ... what?"  
  
Lily let out a deep sigh. A single tear fell from one of her beautiful emerald eyes. James hated to see Lily cry. She slid down the wall opposite and began crying her eyes out.  
  
Not sure at what to do now, James was rooted to the spot. _Go and comfort her. Go on. _Swallowing his pride, he went over to where Lily was.  
  
"Lily?" he spoke in a soft, gentle voice.  
  
No answer.  
  
"Lily, what's wrong?"  
  
"Oh, and when have you ever been so concerned about my feelings, Potter?" Lily choked out. "When have you ever been so ... so ..."  
  
Engulfed in a fresh batch of tears, she couldn't finish the sentence.  
  
James knelt down beside Lily and put his arm around her shoulder. He was never very good at comforting people. It always made him feel awkward. _Why, oh why do girls have to cry all the time?_ Trying to soothe away her tears, James tried to say some calming words to her.  
  
ROAR!  
  
Suddenly, without warning, Lily jumped up, full of rage. Pouncing on James, she pinned him to the floor.  
  
"Whoa, Evans. What the hell do you think you're doing!" and with a slightly steady but nervous smile on his face he said, "mmm, this is kinda kinky."  
  
An unfeeling, reproachful glower answered his statement. Lily's green eyes were flames and were full of emotion. Anger, hate, loathing and ... sadness, lost hope and downright misery. _What is going on? Why is she feeling this way?  
  
_Sighing, James chose his words carefully. "Look, you do know that I could easily throw you off me. A lifetime of playing Quidditch does come in very handy." _Why did I say that? _"Why don't we just sit down together and talk about what's bothering you, aye?"

"Sirius, I think we should go."  
  
"What? No way! Not when it's just getting to the juicy bit. I'm staying!"  
  
"Sirius, I'm warning you ..."  
  
"Shut up, Remus, they'll hear us. I mean, did you hear what they were saying about me?"  
  
Sighing, Remus pulled out his wand. "Please don't make me do this to you ..."  
  
Sirius, still not paying attention, "Do what?" looking round, he spotted the tip of a wand pointing straight at the point between his eyes. Noticing this, he launched himself on his friend. Both of them fell to the floor.  
  
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Remus whispered.  
  
They both heard a load roar from the other side of the wall and despite Remus' complaining, they both leaped up to witness what was going on between the two enemies beyond their hiding place.

Lily slowly got off James and fell down next to him. They both sat up against the stone wall staring into space. James was starting to get really worried about the girl next to him now. He had never seen her like this before. Yes, he had seen her angry and upset, but never as bad as this. There was obviously something very wrong.  
  
"Lily?"  
  
Lily was fidgeting with her fingers and wouldn't meet his gaze. Her head down with fresh tears forming in her beautiful eyes. James stroked her gleaming hair out of her face. Lily shuddered at this point as if scared of the tender touch. Concern filled James' hazel eyes as he continued to stroke her hair.  
  
She turned her head away, trying to keep out of reach of James' hands.  
  
James felt tears of his own developing in his eyes. He blinked them back with an effort. It wouldn't do to look weak, especially when Lily needed him. I know it didn't look as if she wanted it, but she did need James.  
  
"I want to go back to bed." Lily whispered.  
  
Glad that one of them had finally broken the silence, James replied, "So do I, but we can't get out of this room can we?"  
  
"That's just what I always wanted. To be locked in a room with James Potter." Lily said with scornful sarcasm. Still not meeting his eye.  
  
"Oh come on, I can't be that bad?" James said teasingly. "I seem to remember a time when you would have loved this."  
  
He looked straight at Lily, without faltering. Lily could feel his stare on the back of her neck. She hated it when he did that. Lily turned round reluctantly and finally peered straight into his eyes. Unblinking, unfeeling, distrustful and full of anger. James met her look eye for eye, not giving in.  
  
"That was a long time ago, Potter." she replied. "Things have changed since then."  
  
"Oh, so you do remember last Christmas, Lil's. I thought you had conveniently 'forgotten' what had happened then."  
  
"I wish I could, Potter. And don't call me 'Lil's'!"  
  
"Whatever you say Tigerlily." James said with his sweet voice which he knew would annoy Lily.  
  
"And don't call me Tigerlily!"  
  
"All right, Lilyflower."  
  
"STOP CALLING ME THAT EITHER! IF YOU DO THAT ONE MORE TIME, I MAY HAVE TO KILL YOU!!!"  
  
A smile spread across James' face as the situation was actually quite funny.  
  
"What are you smirking at, Potter?" Lily spat out.  
  
Still with the smile on his face he replied with, "We used to argue like this all the time when we actually liked each other."  
  
"So! That time is over now!"  
  
"Really? Does it have to be? James said. "Lily, I really miss what we used to have. We used to laugh and joke together when we were in sixth year. I know I used to be really arrogant and conceited, but even you've got to admit, that changed a hell of a lot over last year. You actually started talking to me like I was a human being. And then there was Christmas ..."  
  
He trailed off, not sure if he wanted to go on as Lily was giving him daggers.

"Hey, what do you reckon happened last Christmas between them then?" Sirius was asking his friend. He was getting increasingly interested in the conversation beyond the wall now.  
  
"I don't know and I don't care." Remus replied. "It sounds as if they're having a very private conversation and I don't think James would appreciate it if he knew we had overheard him talking to Lily about something -"  
  
"Oh, stop being such a wet blanket! Look, if you don't want to be here, just go."  
  
Remus didn't move.  
  
Sirius, noticing his friend's reaction, looked at him with an air of triumph in his eyes.  
  
"I thought so. But be quiet or else they will definitely hear us."  
  
Remus gave Sirius his angry frown, but nonetheless, he leant in towards the wall to carry on watching James and Lily. Yes, he did want to know what happened at Christmas time, but it still felt wrong to eavesdrop on them.

They sat in silence once more. James was desperate to talk to Lily about what was going on between them, but wasn't sure how to word it. One wrong move and he would wish he had never spoken. Lily could be very vicious at times. Not sure at what to say, he resorted to a staring contest with the carpet.  
  
"Why?" Lily finally asked. Breaking the stillness between them.  
  
James turned his head round to look at Lily and found that her gaze was focussed entirely on him. She was staring directly into his eyes as if trying to see past his emotional barriers into the deeper side of his soul, searching for an answer.  
  
It was James this time who couldn't meet Lily's eye. Examining his hands he said, "Why, what?"  
  
"James, look at me." Lily had a new firmness to her voice now. It was as if the tables had turned and James was now the weaker one. Ridden with guilt. Slowly, but surely, James did as he was told and he peered into her eyes. They were like shining jewels now, glittering emeralds glowing in an unseen light. "The start of the year. Why did you do what you did?"  
  
Heaving a great sigh, James once again looked away from her and instead spoke to the opposite wall. "Cause I was a fool. A stupid, jealous fool." he said, hiding his face in his hands.  
  
He felt Lily's hand grip his shoulder. Without knowing it he had lifted his left hand and laid it on top of hers that was on his shoulder. Turning round slightly, still holding her hand, now with both of his.  
  
"Lily. I instantly regretted it. As soon as our lips met I knew it was wrong -"  
  
"Then why did you do it?"  
  
James sat in silence for a few moments pondering over his answer. Letting go of her hand, he stared at the opposite wall again.  
  
"Paul."  
  
"Paul? Paul Hunter? Why ... what's he got to do with this?"  
  
James stifled a small snort and said, "Everything."  
  
"James, you've lost me."  
  
Still staring at the wall, he went on. "The both of you were getting so close over the summer holidays. I heard rumours." heaving a great sigh he continued, "and of course I believed them. I believed other people, my enemies, rather than you. I was such a fool, such a lovesick fool."  
  
Lily blinked at him, confusion written all over her face.  
  
"I found out the truth. But it was too late." James said and he turned round to look at Lily again. "By the time I found out, I had already said some unforgivable things, things that were so hurtful I'm surprised you aren't wacking me around the head with something heavy right now, cause that's what I deserve."  
  
All this was so painful for James. He knew what he must look and sound like. A lost and hopeless fool. He was weak now. The only person to break him down to this level had only ever been achieved by Lily Evans, the fiery redhead, succeeding her third time now. And this was probably the worst. Ironic really, since this simple yet totally remarkable girl next to him inevitably held the solitary key to his heart. Ironic  
  
"You aren't telling me much here, but from what I can gather is that you thought that me and Paul had a thing going on and you got jealous. You set about planning revenge on me without asking me the truth and on the first day back you decide to get into Davina Smith's bed. Just to spite me?"  
  
James couldn't say anything. A lump had risen in his throat and he was afraid if he opened his mouth, he would only be able to squeak. So he kept his mouth shut. Instead, he simply nodded his answer.  
  
Throwing her head back, Lily barked out a sudden burst of laughter. "Oh, and here's me thinking that you only did it cause you didn't want to be anywhere near me and that you hated me. That you preferred her over me." The sarcasm was strong in her voice as she expressed her thoughts.  
  
Finding his voice again, James retaliated. "Well, I thought the two of you were getting all cosy with each other. I thought that you had forgotten Christmas. Forgotten how ... how ..." Completely falling to pieces now, James couldn't say much more, except, "I was hurting, that is why I did it," before burying his face in his arms in the vain attempt of hiding the tears now leaking down his face.  
  
Lily's green flames hot on James' head, she said, "Yeah, well, you were wrong weren't you?" Leaning back against the wall behind her, she took her eyes off James and stared into space. "Typical James Potter. Something like that happens to you and you jump straight into bed with the first girl you see. You don't care who you hurt, as long as the famous James Potter feels better for it."  
  
James jerked his head up and around so quickly he got a crick in his neck. Ignoring the physical pain was easy as the sudden heartache he was suffering completely overwhelmed any other hurt. He felt as if his heart was being torn in two. Tears visible on his face now. Staring straight into the girl's eyes he spoke in a hurtful, defeated voice. "You really think I feel better for what I have done? Do you really think I haven't regretted that night ever since it happened? Do you really think I don't care about your feelings?"  
  
The look Lily gave back was strange. As if she was battling between feeling sorry for him or feeling hate towards what he had done to her. The latter finally dominated her thoughts. About to say something, James interrupted her.  
  
"You're the only girl who seems to be able to do this to me. The only person. Nobody has ever seen me in turmoil like this before. Not even Sirius." And going on in a whisper, "you seem to be the only one who can break me."  
  
Plip.  
  
From the few trailing their way down his face, a single tear fell despairingly onto the carpet between them. A single, solitary tear.

"Oh my god, this is getting better and better. James is right, I've never seen him like this before." Sirius was completely taken with what was happening between his two friends. "This is even better than Lily's ... soaps? ... yeh, that's it. A lot better.  
  
Remus who had given up trying to drag Sirius away was watching with as much intensity as his friend. Turning round in surprise he said, "You watch soaps?"  
  
"I mean, we've seen James cry, we've all seen each other cry. But never like this. I'll need to congratulate Lily the next time I see her."  
  
"You watch soaps?" Remus persisted.  
  
"They are so meant for each other. Everybody can see it." Sirius said. "Hey, I wonder if either of them is going to explain what happened last Christmas."  
  
Remus wasn't listening to a word Sirius was saying and was looking at him in a strange way as if seeing him in a different light. "You watch soaps?"  
  
Finally turning round to face Lupin, Sirius had a defensive look on his face. "So? What if I did watch a few over the summer hols?" Turning round again to watch James and Lily he then said, "Michelle Ryan is hot!"  
  
"Who?"  
  
No answer.  
  
"Wait a minute -" a confused Remus started.  
  
"I've got a muggle friend I went to see a few times in the holidays when I thought I was getting under the Potter's feet." Sirius answered.  
  
"Oh." Remus replied. Right at that moment he let out a huge yawn. Looking at his watch, the time startled him. "Sirius, I think we should finish this, it's two in the morning and there's a Hogsmeade visit in a few hours and I do want to get some sleep." Turning to walk out of the door to his right, Sirius grabbed his arm.  
  
"Neither of us are going just yet, Moony. We are staying put until James and Lily make up."  
  
"But that could take ages. You of all people know what he is like. Especially with Lily Evans."  
  
"Just a little longer."

Lily looked at him, not knowing what to say. Words failed her. Silence. She sat back against the wall with a slight frown upon her forehead as if she was mulling something over and not sure how to say it. James gave up and started looking around the room, anywhere but at the girl next to him. If they were in the 'Room Of Requirement,' then this was the very same room James and Lily had both spent that wildly, passionate night together last Christmas. And nearly twelve months later, they were back here. But there was no passion now that he could see of, just sadness and anger. The room was actually quite romantic. All red and gold and red roses. Red roses? James took a double take. He never noticed them until now. There was a vase of the amorous flowers on the table in the middle of the room. Funny that. Maybe he just hadn't observed them before because he was so intent on the other person in the room to him. This would be Sirius' doing of course, trying to get them in the mood. _Ooh, when I get out of here, he is going to pay for this, big time!  
  
_"I never slept with Paul." Lily said quietly, breaking the uncomfortable silence.  
  
"I know." James whispered.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
Turning round, James frowned at Lily. "What for?"  
  
"For ..." for a moment Lily looked thoughtful. "The start of the year was totally messed up for the both of us ... I mean ... things happen and I'm sorry ... for hurting you."  
  
James buried his head in his hands and groaned. Facing her once again he said, "I should be the one apologising, not you. I was the one who -"  
  
"I know, but if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have tried to get back at me in the first place and ... things wouldn't have happened."  
  
He didn't know what to say. Staring at the opposite wall again. What was going on? This whole thing was a right mess, and it was his fault, not hers. Not wanting to say anything related to what they were talking about at the moment, James changed the subject.  
  
"Dung beetles."  
  
James heard a snort of laughter beside him.  
  
A smile had stretched across Lily's face. A beautiful sight, it just lit up her face and her green emerald eyes sparkled again. Yep, he still had it.  
  
"What was that for?" Lily asked with a hint of amusement in her voice.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"It's a bit strange isn't it?"  
  
Putting on a mock hurt sort of look on his face he replied, "Dung beetles are extremely fascinating creatures."  
  
"Oh, shut up!"  
  
James dropped the act and just gazed at her. Lily's appearance was so different from a minute ago. The smile was still there and her eyes didn't just sparkle, they glittered like the stars in the midnight sky. She no longer looked ready to lunge at him and beat the living shit out of him. She was different. The way she held her body towards James was more seductive, unless his eyes deceived him, and more inviting. _Oh my god, why did I never do that before? All I have to do is talk about dung beetles to break the tension. Cool!  
  
_"Sorry bout that. I just felt the subject needed to be changed." James explained.  
  
Lily had that look in her eyes. The look of ... something. James couldn't quite think what, but he knew he recognised it.  
  
"That's alright. The tension was getting unbearable in here." and with a hint of laughter Lily said, "But why dung beetles?"  
  
"Dunno. Suppose it was just the first thing that popped into my head." James replied. "Amazing the things you think of when you're trying to say something else. That just kinda came out instead of what I was meant to say."  
  
A thoughtful silence passed, when Lily finally asked her question in a quiet voice. "What were you meant to say?"  
  
Staring into Lily's eyes, he was testing her. She never faltered. Those deep green pools were peering back at him with such an intensity, he thought he might look away. She hadn't only passed this little test, she was nearly forcing it to backfire on James. And he couldn't have that. Stroking her hair with his left hand, he replied, "You have the most beautiful smile."  
  
"Oh, stop it."  
  
Dropping his hand down, he took her hand. He saw a flicker in her eyes and thought she was going to pull away, but she didn't. Instead, she held on.  
  
"No, seriously Lily. Everything about you is so beautiful. I can never keep my eyes off you." James said.  
  
A thoughtful look passed through her eyes. James was treading very dangerous ground here. He was surprised she hadn't already exploded and slapped him across the face.  
  
Then something unexpected happened. Lily blushed and looked away.  
  
Embarrassed? Lily Evans embarrassed? And in front of James Potter! What was the world coming to?  
  
A silence passed between them.

"I've never known James to be so slow!" Sirius exclaimed.  
  
Remus gave his friend an exasperated look. "Just give them time."  
  
"They've had _ages_." Sirius whined. He was practically bouncing up and down out of impatience. "Normally, with any other girl they would be doing ...well, you know ... by now. Using the famous Potter charm."  
  
"Oh Padfoot, Padfoot, Padfoot." Remus said shaking his head. "You seemed to have forgotten that this is not just any girl. This is Lily Evans. You know what he's like with her. She can reduce him to tears. We can't - well unless we're laughing so hard, we get tears in our eyes - but that's not the point. Lily affects him differently than any other girl."  
  
"Suppose." Sirius said, seeing reason. "But they're in the "Apologising" stage and moving onto the "I Love You" stage, so they're not that far off their target."  
  
There are different stages?" Remus looked at him incredulously.  
  
Without taking his eyes off Lily and James, he replied, "Of course. First there's the "I Hate You" stage where denial is strongest and where they're blaming everything on each other. Then they move onto the "Life's A Bitch" stage where they run out of argument, sit in silence and curse to themselves about ever being born. Next is the "Apologising" stage where they blame everything on themselves, convinced that they alone caused this trouble and apologises for everything. Last but not least, there is the "I Love You" stage where they realise how stupid they're being and give into their feelings for each other, and kiss."  
  
Remus blinked.  
  
"And how did you work all this out?" a stunned Remus asked.  
  
Turning round to his friend, Sirius said in a serious voice, "Moony, how many girls have I been with?"  
  
"Uh ..." Remus mused, clearly stumped. "Almost the entire student female population in Hogwarts?"  
  
"Precisely. And how many arguments have I had with these girls?"  
  
"I think that number is up in its millions."  
  
"Exactly." Sirius said. "Who knows better about these kind of arguments than me when I have experienced many in my time?"  
  
"Man! You mess about with far too many girls!"  
  
"Wow. Thanks mate." Sirius replied with a genuinely pleased look in his eyes.

This was torture. They were staring into each other's eyes not saying a word. James was quite happy with this normally, but he knew someone had to say something soon. The trouble was, he didn't want to speak. James had that incredible urge to kiss Lily. He was having to use all of his self control to keep from getting closer to her. His heart was thumping, thumping, thumping. So loud, he was surprised Lily couldn't hear it. His breathing became quicker, more paced. Lily was moving closer ... closer ... closer ...  
  
She ran her free hand through his messy black hair and giggled. The feel of her hand on his head made his heart skip a beat. She was looking at him with that old sparkle in her eyes. He smiled to himself. Lily was looking at him in that way again. He could have jumped for joy. But he couldn't move even if he wanted to. James ordered his brain to move at least one finger. Nothing was happening. _Oh my god. I can't move. She's going to laugh at me_.  
  
Lily was still twiddling with his hair and gave out a small giggle. Her mouth moved as they formed spoken words, but James couldn't hear. Everything had gone silent. Lily laughed again.  
  
He was completely lost in thought now. Memories of Lily went racing around his mind. Walking together round the lake. Snuggling up to each other on a cold winters afternoon in the Three Broomsticks. Kissing in a secluded broom cupboard. He smiled at that last one.  
  
"James? James!"  
  
He felt a gentle tap on the cheek. Jolting out of his dream, he came back to reality. Lily was sitting next to him, further apart than she had been moments before with a strange look on her face. James couldn't quite figure out what she was thinking. He realised he was still breathing far too quickly and his heart was still pounding. He tried to swallow, but thought better of it cause he'd probably choke.  
  
"Why are you so nervous?" Lily asked. Her brow was slightly furrowed and her eyes looked questioning.  
  
"Uh ... I." James tried to steady his voice. "Why should I be nervous?" No, the famous Potter charm was not there. She had truly got to him. Lily had reduced him down to a stammering fool.  
  
A smile crossed Lily's face. "Do you remember the last time you got nervous like this?"  
  
James couldn't answer. He remembered, yes. But he didn't think he could trust himself to speak anymore.  
  
Lily obviously picked up on this too, so she went on. "Last Christmas. The 'Room Of Requirement.' You should be able to fill in the blanks." Lily peered into his eyes, causing him to breath even faster. Lily reached up and took his glasses off and laid them to the side. She went on in a husky whisper. "That night was so perfect."  
  
She was so close to him, he could smell her. A beautiful scent of lavender. He couldn't hold it in much longer. He was going to burst if he didn't do anything soon. He had to do this, whether she wanted it or not.  
  
But Lily was a second quicker. It happened so fast. But it felt as if it were playing in slow motion as well. He thought her green eyes were going to swallow him up. James also felt very conscious of his lips and how close they were to Lily's. He was going to do it. He was going to do it now. Now.  
  
Before he did anything else, he felt something. His lips were suddenly in contact with something else. Shock coursed through him. Lily was kissing him! A tingle travelled all around his body. Sparks were flying. The sensuous touch drove him wild and all at once his hormones broke free of all barriers and ran haywire. Testosterone levels had gone sky high. James lost control completely. His hands were all over her body.  
  
Lily had one of her hands going through his hair and the other ... well he wasn't entirely sure where that was, but he had other things occupying his mind, like where his hands were, and that took most of his concentration. They were kissing passionately. James slowly slipped one of his hands to Lily's waist and under her top. His fingers snaked their way further up her body. Lily didn't seem to notice. He pursued it further and he suddenly felt Lily stiffen. She put her hand up to his chest and pushed him away, which was no easy task as James' hormones seemed to taken over all of his sense.

Sirius was staring dumbstruck at the event unfolding in front of them. His eyes were nearly popping out of his head.  
  
"Oh my god! Have you ever seen James be so intense before, Moony?" Sirius said.  
  
No answer  
  
"Moony?" Sirius repeated as he turned round to face his friend. Remus was looking very serious indeed and he had that angry frown on his face. "Woah, who died?"  
  
"We will be if James ever found out about you spying on him and Lily. What is going on in there is private and between the two of them. You are in no way -"  
  
"Hey, hey, hey." Sirius interrupted. "I think there is two of us in here."  
  
"Yeh, but this was your idea -"  
  
"It's worked hasn't it? And anyway, James isn't going to find out is he?" Sirius laid emphasis on those last two words as if daring him to betray.  
  
"Oh, no. _I'm _not going to say anything. What I'm worried about is what _you _will end up blurting out."  
  
"Me?!" Sirius said, shocked. "When have I ever done anything like that before?" Remus opened his mouth to reply, but Sirius quickly stopped him. "Alright, alright. I may have let my tongue run away with itself a few times." Remus gave him a look. "Fine then, a lot of times. But there is no way he is going to find out about this from me."  
  
Remus suddenly had a mischievous idea. "How about we ... ah ... test that ... and place a little bet?"  
  
"Alright then. How much? Ten Galleons? Twenty? Name your price!"  
  
"Oh, I wasn't thinking about money. I was thinking of something a bit more interesting than that."  
  
Remus whispered his proposed idea in his friend's ear. By the time he was finished, Sirius had such a scandalised look on his face, his mouth was wide open.  
  
"You cannot be serious?"  
  
Remus just smiled. "Aaw, you scared that you'll lose?"  
  
"Oh no, you are the one that's going down!" Sirius said. "Oh, what a sight that'll be. Moony ..." He finished by bursting into a fit of laughter. Tears sliding down his cheeks.

"James, please. No."  
  
"What's wrong Lils'?"  
  
"I ... I can't do this." Lily said. "I'm sorry." Lily got up from her place on the floor and stretched. A yawn escaped her and she looked at her watch. "Oh bloody hell. No wonder I'm tired. It's three in the morning, and there's a Hogsmeade visit in a few hours. Because of your so called friends, I'm going to be too shattered to go."  
  
James got up from the floor, put on his glasses and stood next to Lily. He was a good few inches taller than her. Something she wasn't too fond of. She always commented that he could look down his nose at her. And he occasionally commented back to her that she probably would have preferred it to be the other way round. But that was only when he was particularly brave - or drunk - cause he usually got a hit very hard over the head by something and if he was lucky, she would throw in a threat, like having him de-balled. Such a polite girl, Lily Evans.  
  
He decided against that comment for tonight. The weird mood she was in, her worst threats would most likely come true.  
  
"Well, if you're not going to be able to make it to Hogsmeade tomorrow, it won't matter if you get ... ah ... a bit more tired. I could suggest something for us to do." James said as he went behind her and put his arms around her waist and snuggled into her warm body.  
  
"I bet you could. You always have such a reserve of those thoughts in your mind." Lily said. "You've been friends with Sirius Black for far too long. He's a bad influence on you. And anyway, just cause we slept together last Christmas, doesn't mean you're going to get more ... tonight.  
  
"Well, it's not my fault if we just happened to become best friends since the age of three. And it isn't my fault Sirius has got such a dirty mind." James said into her hair and with a smile on his face, "And it's not my fault if you're totally drop dead gorgeous. But I suppose we'll just have to wait for another time for your little implication."  
  
Lily wriggled out of his grip and faced him. "I'm tired and I want to go to bed."  
  
James stood there, just studying her face. Her eyes. She was hiding something. What, he didn't know.  
  
"Well, unfortunately, the door just happens to be locked. We might be in here all night if ..." James trailed off as he heard a sudden click from behind him. The door had unlocked itself. Oh brilliant, James thought, perfect timing. Couldn't it at least have waited five more minutes? Oh no, it had to open now.  
  
"Oh look, it seems the spell put on the door has been broken. We can both go get some sleep now." and with that, Lily headed for the door and out into the dimly lit corridor. "You coming?" she said as she turned back to look at James and held out her hand.  
  
Sighing, James walked out of the room and took Lily's hand. They interlocked fingers and stayed like that until they reached the Gryffindor common room.  
  
Lily and James were at the bottom of the girl's staircase, still holding hands. Peering into each other's eyes, James never wanted this moment to end.  
  
"Well, goodnight then." Lily said and before she made her way to her dormitory, she leaned in and kissed James on the lips. This turned into a full on passionate snog that must have lasted at least five minutes as James put his arms around Lily. She responded by drawing in closer until both their bodies were touching each other. They drank in the feeling, the comfort, the safety.  
  
Soon, Lily realised what she was doing and pulled out of the embrace. Giving James a cheeky grin and a wink, she turned round and disappeared up the staircase.  
  
James was left in the common room all on his own, stunned by the night's events. Giving himself a small shake of the head, he turned and headed up the boy's staircase to his own dormitory.

So, there you go! The first chapter. It took such a long time to write! I was adding bits to it every now and then and one night I got so frustrated I managed to finish it, Yay!  
  
Ok, so you know what to do now. See that lovely little box down there? Yes, bottom right. Click that and review. And please be honest. And please do review, cause I would love you all sooo much!  
  
Ok, I think I'm going slightly crazy now. That's what living out in the boonies does to you. But plz plz plz plz plz plz review!!! 


	2. A Very Evil Morning

CHAPTER TWO - A VERY EVIL MORNING  
  
Hello! I'm back again. Thank you to everyone who reviewed to my first chapter (which was all of ONE person). FrostQueen4eva I love you. Anyway, I had actually already had this chapter finished when I posted the first, but I thought I would make you wait. Muahaha I am so evil. The disclaimer is in the first chapter and before I go on, I must warn you of something. This chapter was written when I was in a VERY evil mood (well the second half was). I was at home on my own and had the full run of the place. And I suppose watching "The Osbournes" and "Punk'd" didn't exactly help things ... but they are such great shows. Anyway, enjoy ...  
  
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James turned the doorknob to the dormitory he shared with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Frank Longbottom. Expecting them all to be asleep, he tried to sneak in quietly. But as soon as he opened the door, he heard shuffling from inside and a voice.  
  
"Aye, aye. The wanderer returns."  
  
James didn't even need to see to know who that was. Sirius.  
  
Remus and Sirius were sitting up in bed expectantly, with eager faces. It didn't even look as if they had been in bed long but James dismissed that as a trick playing in his mind. It was after all, three in the morning. Sirius was grinning from ear to ear; blue eyes full of mischief while his black hair fell gracefully around his face framing the laughter.  
  
"So," Sirius said, "did you have a good night?"  
  
Before James replied, he strode over to Sirius' four-poster bed and hit him very hard on the arm. "That, my dear friend, is for leaving me in a locked room with Lily Evans for two torturous hours."  
  
"Oh I don't know about that. I thought you looked ..." Sirius hesitated as if he didn't want to say the next bit. To James it sounded like he was trying to do some quick thinking to how to get out of the situation. "... forward to the chance when you would get to spend time with Lily with no interruptions."  
  
The correction was so quick; James dismissed the hesitation and blamed tiredness. Collapsing on his bed, he sighed. He was still fully dressed, but he didn't care. What were a few creased clothes compared to what had happened tonight? With another sigh, he gave up and undressed down to his boxers. James always hated to sleep in his clothes. He hid beneath his covers and a very muffled "goodnight" could be heard as James prepared to go to sleep a very exhausted and confused man.  
  
Remus sat up in bed and said, "Oh no you don't. You're going to tell us what happened. We didn't lock you in that room for two hours and stay up to this time in the morning for you to tell us 'goodnight.' We're going to get some answers."  
  
Grunt.  
  
"That's not good enough." Remus said. He picked up one of his pillows and hurled it at James' head. Unfortunately for James, Sirius decided to chuck one of his pillows at the same target at the exact same time. The result was an extremely pissed off James as he emerged from under his blankets.  
  
"Right ..." James said  
  
James picked one pillow and threw it as hard as he could back at Remus hitting him on the head. Moony's fair hair ruffled and his brown eyes laughed. His pale face going slightly pink.  
  
James was extremely frustrated with all this and he raked his fingers through his own messy black hair and his hazel eyes shone mischievously as he aimed a pillow at Sirius. _Right, I'm really going to get you this time.  
  
_Unfortunately, Sirius knew what was coming and was ready with his wand. The pillow went whirling through the air and was caught up in a badly directed banishing charm by Sirius. This caused the pillow to take a little detour and ended up slap, bang on Peter's head.  
  
"What ... who ... where's the fire?" Peter shouted out stupidly. He was looking around wildly when James, Sirius and Remus burst into laughter. Peter, a mousy looking boy who was slightly over weight, had blonde hair, watery eyes and a pointed nose was the complete opposite of the other three Marauders. Many people wondered why the three most popular guys hung around with such a dweeb, but hey, I suppose stranger things happen.  
  
James was clutching his side because he was laughing so hard. "Sorry Peter. Meant for Sirius. He misaimed. Banishing charm." and fell back on his bed laughing.  
  
"Hey that's terrible Sirius. Sounds like you were worse than me." Peter said.  
  
Sirius, seeing that as a great insult as he was one of the top pupils in the school, threw another pillow at Peter's head. Though they both laughed at the good humour.  
  
"Hey guys, some people are trying to sleep here." came a muffled voice from the end bed.  
  
"Sorry Frank, but we're just trying to get some info outta James." Sirius said.  
  
"Well do it more quietly then."  
  
"Yes, Sir" Sirius replied doing a salute. Turning to James, he said, "You heard the man. Well what happened?"  
  
James thought for a moment. _Should I tell them what happened? No, that would be too embarrassing. None of them have ever seen me in the state I was in tonight. But Sirius will never give up until he gets some goss. _James groaned. _I'm not going to get any sleep unless I say something. Lily was so ... weird tonight. What the hell am I gonna do about her. I don't think I'm ever going to understand girls.  
  
_"Hello? Earth to James! Are you with us? James!" a voice said. James didn't realise who it was until he felt someone slap his head.  
  
"Sirius! What the hell do you think you are doing?!" James yelled.  
  
"Bringing you back to reality." Sirius replied simply. "So? What happened?"  
  
James was feeling extremely frustrated now. He wanted to go to sleep, where he could dream about Lily in peace. But he had to tell them something or else sleep would not come to him tonight.  
  
"Lily was ... weird." James said. "Goodnight." and he snuggled under his covers once again, trying to ignore his friends' impatient mutters. Pulling down his curtains with his wand, he finally relaxed. Sleep overtook his senses and sent him into a world full of dreams about Lily. He smiled to himself.  
  
----------------------- Next Morning  
  
"Oy, Lily wake up!" a voice shouted from somewhere in the room. Suddenly she felt something hit her head. A pillow had been thrown at her. Only one person had an addiction to that. Only one person.  
  
"Clara!" Lily yelled. "Trying to sleep here!" and she pulled her duvet up to cover her head.  
  
"No you're not. We're all going to Hogsmeade today."  
  
"I'm staying here." suddenly Lily's covers had been whipped off of her. A blast of freezing cold air hit her. She hated winter mornings, the heating was never on this time in the morning. "Clara! Give that back or I'll ...  
  
"Or you'll what?" Clara smiled at her. She was fully dressed and was wearing a pair of tight fitting jeans and a low cut top underneath her warm coat. Her long raven black hair had been straightened and she had make up on, emphasising her chocolate eyes and rosy cheeked glow.  
  
"I can't believe you still think you can pull Sirius Black. He's a sleaze bag. And anyway, he's got a girlfriend."  
  
"Not for much longer." Clara said with an evil grin. "Now get up. Get ready and look as beautiful as you can and James will fall into your hands like putty. Unless you've already done that ..."  
  
Lily sighed. She wanted to know what had happened the night before. No. She wasn't going to say a thing. "Oh yes, that reminds me." Lily got up and stood next to her friend and hit her very hard on the arm. "That, is for leaving me in a locked room for two torturous hours with Potter."  
  
"Ow. So what happened then? Did you two kiss and make up?"  
  
"I'm going for a shower." Lily said and picking up a towel, she made her way to the bathroom.  
  
"Hey! Tell me what happened!" Clara shouted after Lily's retreating back.  
  
Lily smiled to herself.  
  
Oh she was going to have fun with Potter. Playing hard to get and irritating always drove men crazy.  
  
Oh yes, this was going to be fun.  
  
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James was sitting in the Great Hall watching everyone else eat breakfast. He was too tired to eat, partly. The other reason was that he was thinking about Lily too much to bother with food. To anyone observing him, he would have looked distinctly bored, but to his friends, they knew it was far from that. He couldn't stop thinking about Lily. It was like she was permanently etched on his mind. The whole thing was driving him insane.  
  
"Boo!"  
  
James must have jumped a foot in the air with fright. He hated when people did that to him. _It's probably Sirius, _James thought and was about to turn round and shout at him when he realised he was already sitting opposite him. The person sitting to his left however, was Lily!  
  
"I didn't know you could get scared that easily." Lily said with a grin.  
  
James mouthed wordlessly. Not sure what to say. Lily never sat next to him willingly. Maybe last night had indeed improved their outlook to each other.  
  
Lily handed James a note and started a conversation with Sirius. She probably knew he would say something about James, Lily and last night. "So Sirius, how's it going? What you up to today?"  
  
Sirius grinned. "Why? I didn't know you were so interested in my, uh, I quote, "meaningless existence", unquote."  
  
"Oh, I'm not, but I know somebody who is."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Not telling." Lily said with a mischievous grin.  
  
"You can be so evil when you want to be."  
  
"Me? Evil? I'm a little angel."  
  
"Yeh right. I've heard things about you Lily Evans."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Two words. Paul. Hunter."  
  
James groaned. Oh perfect. Sirius had put his foot right in it. James glared at his friend and Sirius obviously knew it was a mistake to say that as soon as he had said it.  
  
"Lily, I -"  
  
"I've got to go. Sit with Clara. She's saved me a seat. See you later James." she gave him a weak smile and left to go sit with her friends at the other end of the table, swaying her hips as she went.  
  
When she had sat down, James turned to Sirius. "Oh, real smooth Sirius, real smooth. Why didn't you just mention the slapper I slept with at the start of school and you would have completed the idiocy of the crap that comes out of your mouth."  
  
"Uh ... James." Sirius said  
  
"What?"  
  
"A slapper am I?"  
  
_Oh my god, _James thought, _please don't let it be her. Please. _He turned round reluctantly and before he could see who it was, he received a very hard slap across his face.  
  
"Davina I -" James started.  
  
"Oh sod off Potter!" she yelled. Her voice carried itself all the way round the Great Hall and everyone fell silent. "Just cause you used me doesn't mean I'm a slapper. You're a male slut yourself!" and with that she turned on her heel and strode out of the hall, leaving James sitting there with a very red face. Oh she must have enjoyed that, James thought, embarrassing me in front of the whole school. Everyone was staring at him. James just wanted the ground to swallow him up.  
  
Suddenly out of nowhere people started clapping and cheering. Mainly from the Slytherin table. James frantically looked around him and everyone had a look of amusement on their faces. Oh the shame. Even the teachers looked amused! Oh my god, kill me now.  
  
James couldn't stand the humiliation and rushed out of the Great Hall.  
  
(a/n oh my god, I loved writing that bit so much. I know I was cruel to James, but I was feeling particularly evil at that point so I thought I would embarrass him a bit. It's my story so I can do what I want with it. Muahahahahahah!!!)  
  
James found himself up in the Owlery. He sometimes went their when things were totally getting on top of him. It was cold in there as all the windows had no glass in them to let the owls fly in and out freely. James spotted his eagle owl near the top of the rafters asleep. The mass of owls in there was amazing, so inevitably the tower was a mess. You couldn't see the floor. It was covered in bird droppings, bones and feathers.  
  
Making his way out to one of the windows, James just stood there and peered out over the grounds. It was so beautiful. Frost was covering every bit of land and clung to the trees and plants, making everything sparkle. The lake was completely frozen over and the whomping willow almost looked appealing with the frost decorating it.  
  
James was starting to shiver so he put his hands in his pockets. He felt something in his right pocket and realised it was the note from Lily. He still hadn't looked at it. James pulled it out and read it.  
  
**James  
  
Meet with me in the Three Broomsticks at 2pm.  
  
Lily  
  
**"That was short." James mumbled.  
  
Not knowing what else to do he stuffed the note back in his pocket and continued to stare out of the window. Half an hour later he was still there, completely unaware of the time as he was lost in his thoughts. _What does Lily want to meet up for? Maybe she wants to get together with me. Or maybe, she's going to blow me off. _James was torturing himself. _I never know what she's going to do next. She's just so bloody unpredictable! _James was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't hear somebody else enter the room.  
  
"Hey James." the voice said.  
  
James didn't hear.  
  
"James!" the voice said a little louder.  
  
He still didn't respond.  
  
The person was getting rather impatient. She walked over to where James was and did something that would certainly grab his attention.  
  
"Ouch!" James screamed. Somebody or something had just pinched him on the arse, very hard. Wasn't it bad enough he had a very sore left cheek on his face? Now his other cheek hurt! He spun around with his hand raised.  
  
"You wouldn't?" Lily was in front of him and was glaring at his raised hand.  
  
James quickly lowered it and messed his hair up with it instead. "Sorry it's just that first, I get slapped, have my ego severely bruised, and then somebody decides to pinch my arse, which by the way, hurt."  
  
"Sorry bout that, but it seemed the only way to get your attention."  
  
"For most people usually calling somebody's name works." James said feeling very disgruntled.  
  
"I did, twice." Lily answered. "You were dreaming."  
  
James shrugged.  
  
"So, you coming to Hogmeade or not? Everyone's starting to leave." Lily said, changing the subject.  
  
"I'm not going." James said as he turned back to staring out of the window.  
  
"Hey I thought we had a date?"  
  
James didn't reply.  
  
"Oh my god. James Potter is refusing to go on a date with me! Wow that's a first!" Lily mocked.  
  
James turned round to retort an answer. He really wasn't in the mood for anything. Not even Lily. He just wanted to be on his own. "Look, just because ..."  
  
And he got no further than that because he suddenly felt something plop on his head. James stopped in his tracks. _Oh no, please don't let it be what I think it is. _He didn't need the feel the top of his head to have his worst suspicions confirmed. The look on Lily's face confirmed it for him. She was trying very hard not to laugh, but was failing miserably. James felt like a boiling kettle and he was ready to explode. It was going to be one of those days, he just knew it. Well, at least this wasn't in front of the whole school this time. (a/n I am so evil, muahahahaha)  
  
_Ok, I can either laugh or cry or scream. Screaming sounds good, I can do that._ And that's just what he did. He noticed this shocked Lily a bit, but she soon recovered. The owls however, were not very pleased. Many had been awoken and hooted their displeasure at James. There was a great shuffling of irritation from the birds as they tried to settle down again.  
  
Then laughter could be heard from James' mouth. Lily then finally cracked and they both ended up having to lean on each other for support as they were laughing so hard they could hardly stand. Tears were leaking from Lily's eyes but she quickly wiped them away as she straightened herself up and muttered a spell to rid the mess from James' head.  
  
They were both standing quite close to each other. Their face only inches apart. James could feel Lily's breath on his face. He suddenly got those butterflies in his stomach again. Lily was looking into his eyes with a great intensity and James felt his hormones taking over again. He never seemed able to control himself when this happened. Lily's lip had gotten closer, James was sure of it. This time _he _was going to kiss her. He wouldn't lose his nerve. Not this time! James leaned in to kiss Lily and just as his lips touched hers, she pulled away.  
  
"Hey, if we're going to Hogsmeade, we'd better get a move on, everyone's probably left by now, and Clara won't be too pleased if I keep her waiting." Lily said with a cheeky grin. And just as she was about leave, she said, "Hey remember our date. Three Broomsticks. Two 'o clock. Don't forget" finishing what she had to say, Lily left James standing there with his mouth wide open and full of frustration.

Oh my god I am still feeling so evil. I'm really not being nice to James am I? But the bird shitting on his head was just so perfect. It happens to everyone at least once in their lives. grins evilly. Oh and the whole thing with Lily playing hard to get, well, it's sort of something I enjoy seeing guys go through. Hey they do it to us, so why not let them suffer? I have made my point. But it is so much fun making James go through it. Muahahaha! I just love that evil laugh. Right, well I'd better stop writing or else I'm going to get carried away and anyway I need to go soon. And I kinda need to pee so I'll bid you gooday and farewell.  
  
p.s. Please, please, please, please, please, please review. You would make me so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Next chappie coming to your screens soon ... 


	3. Blunders and Confessions

**CHAPTER THREE - BLUNDERS AND CONFESSIONS**

Hello!!! It's me again. Chappie three is here at last. I'm not feeling so evil at the moment but who knows when it might emerge? Anyway you know the drill. Anything you recognise is not mine, it is J. K. Rowling's. Anything you don't recognise, however, is mine, ALL MINE. Ahem anyway, uh here you go ...

**Desolation Lily**

and

**Hp4me**

and

FrostQueen4eva

A HUGE THANK YOU!!! For reviewing I luv ya!

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James made his way down the main street in Hogsmeade. It was really beautiful. Just like a picture postcard. Everything was covered in frost and sparkled. James' breath rose in the air in front of him, and he smiled. It was absolutely freezing, but he didn't notice the chill. James had far more important things on his mind. Like the people laughing as they walked past him. Laughing and pointing at him. Oh yes, they found the incident in the Great Hall very amusing. Seeing James Potter being put down like that. But he strode past and just ignored them. That was the best thing to do.

James was making his way to the Three Broomsticks to see if he could find his friends, when a voice sounded behind him.

"Hey, there goes Potter, the slut!"

James could have easily have ignored that comment, but it was the person who was saying it, that made him turn round. He came face to face with Severus Snape. A smile was forming on Snape's face as he realised other people had stopped to watch. 'He probably thinks he can humiliate me again in front of all these people. Ha, fat chance of that!' Indeed, James had a smile forming on his lips.

"Did you want something, Snape?" James said in a falsely sweet voice.

Snape didn't say anything.

"Right, well I'll be on my way then." James said.

Snape clearly wanted a fight because as soon as James' back was turned, Snape pointed his wand and muttered a spell under his breath. This caused James to trip up and fall flat on his face on the hard ground

James was getting angry now. He really wasn't in the mood for this! He got up and went over to Snape. "What is this really about Snape? Jealous are you? That I can get some and you can't?"

That touched a nerve. The smile on Snape's face disappeared, only to be replaced by a scowl. "Well at least I don't use girls like you do."

James was laughing now. "Oh come on, you've never been close enough to a girl to use her. Alright, name one girl you've been really close to."

Snape was silent.

"I thought so." James spat. "I mean, what sane girl would want to be anywhere near you. Probably scared of getting greased." then people started laughing. Not at James, but at Snape.

James was sneering at Snape now, glad to have the humiliation passed onto somebody else, but him. Snape seemed to have regained some of his composure as he retorted, "I wonder what Evans thought of all that. She's hardly going to go out with you now. Not now everybody knows what you are really like."

"You leave Lily out of this." James said in a deadly whisper.

"Everybody knows that the only reason you want to go out with Evans is because she's the only person you haven't shagged." Snape said. "You won't be happy until you get her into bed, then you'll dump her. Like everybody else."

James smiled. "You really have no idea, do you?"

"I know more than you think."

"Really like what?"

"Ah, now that would be telling."

James smirked. "That would be because you've got nothing to tell. You're only saying that to act cool. You'll never be cool, Snape. You've always been the piece of dirt on the bottom of a shoe that everybody wants rid of." and with that he started to walk away. They certainly had collected a crowd of spectators. That made James angry. Didn't they have anything better to do than watch them? That's when he spotted Sirius, Remus and Peter. They were watching too. He was about to tell everyone to sod off and talk to his friends, when ...

"Lily Evans. The perfect little mud blood. Yeh, she was good in bed. Not the best, but she had her uses." Snape shouted from behind him. James stopped dead in his tracks. Turning around, he strode up to Snape once again.

"What did you say?" James said in a low, but dangerous voice.

"Aaw, is poor little Jamesie jealous cause I got some from the pretty little mud blood before you did?" Snape mocked. "Now that would never do. You always have to have them first. Or Black."

James really couldn't stand this much longer. "LIAR!" he shouted. He had grabbed Snape by the collar and lifted him off the ground. He growled in Snape's face, "Liar!"

"Oh, you may want to deny that it ever happened," Snape whispered maliciously, "but it is still a fact. No matter how you look at it."

James was furious! Snape had to be lying. He had to be! James fumbled for his wand with his free hand. He was sure he would kill Snape if he could. But a nice curse would do just fine. James found his wand and was just about to pull it out when somebody grabbed his arm.

"No, James." a firm voice said from behind him.

"You're not going to stop me this time, Remus!" James growled, turning his gaze onto his friend.

"Put him down, James." Remus said in an infuriately calm voice. "Let him go."

"Why should I?" James snarled, turning back to Snape. "Why should I let him go now? Why should I let him go after making up those vicious lies about Lily?" Fury etched all over his face, his hands shaking.

All Snape did in reaction to that was smile even more and say, "It's got to you hasn't it Potter? The realisation that Evans might prefer me over you. Ever since starting Hogwarts, you've thought yourself some sort of stud, with nearly every girl falling to your charm. You are so bigheaded, you never even realised -"

Snape was cut short as James moved his hand from his opponents collar, to his neck. A slight strangling noise came from Snape's throat as James seemed to be cutting off his air supply.

"JAMES!" Remus raised his voice louder. The only noise round about them except Snape's frightened, strangled squeaks. Silence had enveloped the crowd. Movement had come to a standstill. All eyes were on the three in the centre of the circle. "James! Let him go! He isn't worth it!" still gripping his friend's arm with the wand. Remus felt if he let go, James would almost certainly do something stupid.

A voice seemed to puncture its way into James' head. It sounded very distant at first, but then Remus' voice reached his senses. What was he doing? Then for the first time since holding Snape in this position, he looked around at the crowd, 'woah, they're so attentive, so ... dumbstruck,' then at Remus, 'man, he looks ... mad, scared and ...,' lastly he turned his attention to Snape. His captive was hanging there a couple of inches off the ground, lifted up by James' strength, by the throat. Snape looked, scared. No, that wasn't the word. Petrified probably fit the look on his face better. Terrified of what James might do. Remus' voice flitted through his head again, telling him to let go. Let go, just let go. He couldn't. His fingers felt stiff, so stiff.

'I've got to let go. James, what the hell are you doing? Let go of him! Just let him go! LET HIM GO!!!'

All of a sudden, James got the feeling back in his fingers and they sprang apart as if he were holding a poisonous spider. Snape fell to the ground in a crumpled heap and started massaging his throat. The glares directed to James from the heap on the ground were of deepest loathing and fear. James looked around the crowd again. A buzzing now filled the air as if a million bees had erupted into life. He had to get out of there. What had he done? He had to escape. James had a very frightened look on his face now, as if he was scared that everyone was going to corner him and make him pay for what he had done.

But James couldn't move. His feet were rooted to the spot. All he could do was watch while everyone else shot him accusing glares. Nobody came near him though. Maybe they were scared he would do the same to them what he had done to Snape. The only thing that probably kept them there was curiosity to what James would do now. But fear was rank around them.

James couldn't stand this much longer. This day had turned out a nightmare. He persuaded himself to move his legs. They felt stiff, but they moved eventually. James put one foot in front of the other and made the slow walk to the edge of the expectant crowd. Remus followed him, he noticed. James just wanted to be on his own. Wanted to go back to his bed and stay there. Maybe even pretend none of this had happened. Pretend he hadn't woken up yet and start over again. Yes, that's what he was going to do.

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Silence quilted the air. It was torture. All James could do was lie there on his bed and go over everything in his head. Everything that had happened that day. And things certainly hadn't stopped after he nearly strangled Snape. No. There had been the matter of Professor McGonagall finding out. And Dumbledore. He could still hear McGonagall's voice drilling its way through his head. 'Potter, you are a disgrace to the school. A hundred points off Gryffindor.' James groaned. They would never win the House Cup this year at the rate he was going. 'I'm ashamed to call you Head Boy of Hogwarts. If it was up to me, I would rip that badge off of you straightaway.' But instead, that was Dumbledore's decision. James couldn't believe it, four months with the badge and he was so close to getting it taken off him. He was surprised Dumbledore hadn't taken it off him. The cool calm of the Headmaster was unnerving. James almost wished Dumbledore had shouted at him. Instead, the disappointment on his face seemed to wrench at James' sense of guilt. He felt so guilty for letting Dumbledore down. The Headmaster was the one who in fact gave James the chance to redeem himself, had made him Head Boy. He still didn't know why Dumbledore had given him this position, but so far he had majorly stuffed up, as McGonagall continually reminded him during her lecture. 'You are meant to be setting an example to the students in this school, by being well behaved and responsible. Not by half killing another student. No matter how much you might dislike each other!'

There it was. Snape was brought into it. When James had been in Dumbledore's office, Snape had been brought in by McGonagall. James was sure Snape was faking those looks he kept receiving from the snivelling wreck. He was milking it for all it was worth, just to get James into worse trouble. He was forced to apologise to Snape. James hated that. Even though it was Snape who provoked him! James tried to explain this, but to no avail. Professor McGonagall had said this was a stupid schoolboy grudge that had gone on long enough and that they should both grow up. No, this wasn't over a stupid schoolboy grudge. This was because of Snape's lies about Lily. James didn't mention this in front of the Professors mainly because he didn't want the subject brought up again. It hurt him to think of it. Even if it wasn't true. It couldn't be true, it just couldn't!

Anyway, James had got off lightly - well as lightly as it was possible in the situation - and received a months worth of detention, which involved Pringle, the caretaker getting a mini holiday off from scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets and what not. James sighed. Pringle would surely get him to do the worst jobs ever and generally make his life miserable. All this on top of a hundred points taken off Gryffindor. He certainly wasn't going to be popular when he finally emerged out of his dormitory. It's amazing how you can suddenly be the most popular and lusted after person in the school one day, then the next, a complete social reject. James dug back into his memories, this had happened before. Losing points, becoming unpopular, then the next week everyone had forgotten about it, and James would have a nice blonde hanging off his arm.

But this time it was different, and he knew it. He _was_ meant to be setting an example, he _was_ Headboy. Life was never simple was it? Never. Plus Lily would probably hate him again. Just after they had made up after four months of fighting he had to go blow it again. Lily. Lily and Snape. No. That never happened. 'It's all a lie,' James thought, 'all a stupid, evil lie!'

James was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he never heard footsteps outside the dorm room. James was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he never heard the door open. James was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he never heard someone say his name. The rest of the Marauders had entered into the darkened tower room. James hadn't bothered to light any candles.

"James?" came a distant voice.

At first it didn't register in James' mind.

"James!" the voice sounded worried now.

Still he ignored them.

"Prongs!?" came a different voice.

Something stirred in James' head. Memories came flooding towards him. A beautiful stag standing proud, next to a shaggy black dog, a rat and a wolf. He smiled. His friends.

Remus stood to the right of him, worry etched in those tired brown eyes. "You alright?" he said softly.

"No." was James' simple answer.

"Well, at least you're with us." Sirius said, letting out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in. He was standing to the left of James with Peter next to him. "We thought you had gone to cloud cuckoo land." he said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

James glanced at his friends. They all looked as if they were at the bedside of a dying person. He burst into laughter. Remus, Sirius and Peter then looked at him even stranger, as if he were mad. "Hey look, I'm not about to pounce on you."

"Lets get some light in here first." Remus said and with a flick of his wand, candles ignited and a glow enveloped the room. Turning back to James he said, "So, what happened?"

James sat up. This was all so weird. "Well, I'm still Head boy." he said. "Even though I don't deserve to be. I feel so terrible for what I just did. I'm surprised Dumbledore didn't chuck me out of the school."

"What did Dumbledore say?

"That's the strangest part about it. Apart from telling me how disappointed he was in me and that he was still going to let me be Head boy he didn't say a thing. He just stood there and let McGonagall lecture me."

James was feeling so downtrodden now, he was surprised he hadn't been trampled over by a herd of loose Hippogriffs. The way his luck was going today, that could very well happen.

"Well, at least you're still Head Boy." Sirius tried to console. "So, what's the punishment?" he asked, looking as if he really didn't want to know the answer.

"A hundred points lost and a months detention with Pringle."

Remus, Sirius and Peter all had looks of pain on their faces. They knew very well how evil Pringle could be when you were forced to do chores for him. The nastiest, grimiest, most disgusting job was what you prayed for when you were in detention with him. Pringle seemed to find jobs so nauseating you almost begged to clean toilets. And a whole month! Poor James.

"Ouch." Sirius said. "Well, Prongs, ol' buddy, ol' pal. It's been nice knowing you."

"Sirius! That's not a very nice thing to say." Remus said. "We're meant to be trying to cheer James up."

"Moony, do you remember our third year?"

"Yes." Remus replied slowly, clearly not knowing where this was leading.

"Do you remember my famous exploding ink ball rocket firework thingy?"

"Yes."

"And do you remember my punishment for that delightful prank?"

Realisation had suddenly dawned on Remus' face. "Ah, yes. I get your point."

"A week was bad enough with that old bastard."

"Guys, you're not making me feel any better here." James said. "Can we please talk about something else apart from what a total and utter prat I made of myself today. Oh, and thanks for holding me back Remus. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't have been there."

"I do." Remus replied. "You would have killed Snape on the spot."

"Yeh, man, you looked murderous." Sirius piped in. "I've never seen you like that before. It was scary. I mean, even I started feeling sorry for Snape."

James groaned.

"Lily looked pretty mortified as well." Peter said, speaking for the first time since entering the room.

James glared at Wormtail, then he realised what he had just said. "What? She was there?"

"Yeh, she was at the back of the crowd with Clara." Peter answered.

"Hey, you surely don't believe Snape?" Sirius said. "Lily is far too sensible to do anything _that_ stupid."

James sighed again. "I know. I just don't know what came over me."

"You flipped your lid, James," Remus said, "and that is putting it lightly."

James groaned again. "Oh yeh, you guys are doing a fantastic job of making me feel better here." James said sarcastically.

"Hey, Prongs, don't beat yourself up about this whole thing." Sirius said, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Even if Snape is telling the truth - which I'm sure he isn't, the slimy bastard - you've already shagged Lily anyway, so no worries."

Sirius froze. He had just realised what he had said. Taking his hand away he tried to weasel his way out of it. "Uh ... I ... ah."

"What do you mean 'you've shagged Lily anyway, so no worries'?" James asked with a hint of anger in his voice. Oh my god, how did he know? He hadn't told anyone, no one. Nor had Lily. James glanced round. Peter looked confused and Remus ... well, he looked as if he were constipated. Or maybe he was trying not to laugh? But what was so funny about this? James glared at Sirius again, determined to get an answer, since all he did was stay silent.

"Sirius what the hell are you talking about?" James demanded angrily. Sirius looked quite scared now. And he wasn't looking at James, Sirius' gaze rested on Remus. Silence shrouded the group. James didn't have a clue to what was going on. He was getting really frustrated now. Something was going on that he didn't know about. Turning to Remus he tried to get an answer out of him. "Remus! How does Sirius ... I mean ... what is going on?"

"I think you'll have to ask Sirius that." Remus replied, sounding rather strangled as if he really were trying to suppress a laugh.

Turning round again, he faced Sirius. "Sirius, how the HELL did you find out about that?" James yelled. He was getting extremely aggravated now. The whole situation was pissing him off. He wasn't in the best of moods already, so this sort of made things even worse. How dare he know about what had happened between him and Lily! How dare he! That was private!

"Uh ... I don't." Sirius muttered.

"If you don't stop lying to me Sirius Black, I swear I will hex you SO bad you will be in the Hospital Wing for a WEEK!" James threatened.

Sirius gulped. He had obviously taken him seriously, cause Sirius was now looking very nervous and kept glancing at Remus, who appeared as if he really was severely constipated.

"Uh ... I overheard someone mentioning it." Sirius said meekly, now staring at his shoes.

James was confused now. Lily would definitely not have never have told ANYONE. He definitely hadn't told anyone, not even his best friends. 'If Sirius had known from when we did it, he would have let slip before now,' James thought, 'and the only other time it was mentioned since then, was last night.' Last night. Sirius and Remus had locked them both in the 'Room Of Requirement' last night. What if they had ...

James was suddenly on his feet and was only inches away from Sirius face. He was so angry, he could've killed Sirius on the spot. But he wasn't just angry, he was embarrassed. Sirius (and probably Remus as well) had seen him cry. Had seen him at his weakest. Seen Lily break him down to a gibbering idiot.

"You spied!" James shouted in his friend's face.

All Sirius did was wipe away the flecks of James' spit off his face, before he answered. "Hey look -"

There was an explosion from the other side of James' bed. Remus had burst in a fit of hysterical laughter, tears were rolling down his face. Leaning on the bed, he tried to stand up but was failing miserably as he struggled to breath. Speaking seemed out of the question, but he looked to be trying.

James was extremely confused now. Glancing from Remus, who now looked like a maniac, he studied Sirius. Padfoot was looking very grim at the moment and he wasn't looking at James. No, he was looking at Remus.

"Oh shut up, Moony." Sirius growled.

"What is going on?!" James yelled for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Remus seemed to have calmed down a bit now. But his face was still red and a look of pure joy twinkled in his eyes.

"Remus, don't!" Sirius threatened.

"Hey, I would like to know what's going on as well." Peter squeaked.

"Oh, James you are going to love this -"

"Hey, Remus was there too. He spied as well as me -" Sirius interrupted.

"I know I did, but who was the one who lost the bet?"

"Bet? What bet?" James asked, who was very curious now. "I am still pissed off with the both of you for spying, but if you tell me this I MIGHT forgive you."

Remus leaned in to whisper in James' ear. Sirius could do nothing but stand there and be humiliated. And wait for the inevitable outburst ...

"You're kidding?" James was whispering back to Remus. "No way?!"

Remus inclined in further and murmured some more.

At this, James burst into laughter and grinned at Sirius evilly.

Oh, James was going to get his own back, big time!

"Oh, but can I make a few ... additions?" James asked.

"Why, of course!" Remus replied.

Both Moony and Prongs were looking at Sirius with a very mischievous glint in their eyes.

Oh yes, James was going to have a lot fun seeing Sirius making a fool out of himself.

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Ok, well this was an interesting chapter to write. Personally I think it is crap. It's too serious. I tried to get some humour into the end, but I'm not sure if it worked.

If you could please make your way over to the review section I would LOVE to hear from you.

Oh, and a little after thought. While you review if you have any ideas about what I can make Sirius do, suggestions are welcome. I do have a small idea in mind but if you can think of a better way to humiliate Sirius, please do tell me.

Thanx

Pingu


	4. Remus' Big Mistake

**CHAPTER FOUR - REMUS' BIG MISTAKE**

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

It's me again!!! And I am in a slightly insane mood at the moment. It is late at night and that's when I seem to go mad. Muahahahahaha!

Anyhoo, disclaimer is in previous chapters so on with the story!

**Desolation Lily** You rock! No, seriously you do! Anyway, you were the ONLY person to suggest something concerning Sirius. But I'm afraid no can do. It is just wrong, so wrong. And anyway, I'm afraid it wouldn't fit in with my future plans for Sirius. grins evilly I am gonna totally humiliate him muahahahahaha!!!

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Clara was sitting on the sofa down in the Gryffindor common room. She really didn't know what to do. She had been with Lily when James completely flipped his lid in Hogsmeade. The lies Snape was saying about him and Lily really had seemed to have got to her. Lily was at the moment up in their dormitory probably crying into her pillow. She wanted to be left alone. Clara hated feeling useless. She wanted to make Lily feel better, but she just didn't know how to do it. She had tried saying Snape was a liar and a desperate loner who would make up all sorts of lies just to get attention, but none of it seemed to work.

Clara was staring into the flames of the fire in the hearth as she let her thoughts wander. Thoughts about Lily. Snape. Secrets. Lies. Sirius. 'Wait, where the hell did the thought of Sirius come from?' That certain guy always seemed to pop into her head without any warning. If she wasn't careful, she would be seen visibly pining for him, and that could not be seen to be coming from Clara Sutton. Never.

Just as she was keeping herself occupied with her musings about Sirius, someone came to sit down beside her.

"Hey Clara." a cheery voice said.

Clara must have jumped a foot in the air. She never noticed the guy until now. "What you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?"

"No," Remus said, "I'm just trying to be sociable."

"Well, don't creep up on me again." Clara snapped.

Remus then got a hurt look on his face and she instantly regretted snapping at him. So she softened her voice. "Look, I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have bitten your head off like that. It's just ..."

"You're worried about Lily." Remus said. "I can understand that. So where is she?"

"Where do you think?" Clara said tilting her head up towards the girls' staircase.

"Well it can't be easy facing the world, even when Snape was lying cause you will get at least one jerk who will believe it." Remus mused. "Anyway, going off the subject of Lily, I came here to ask you a favour."

"Oh, and I thought you had just come here for my wonderful company." Clara said airily.

"Yeh, well, that and something else. I need you to help me with something I'm going to be doing to Sirius."

Clara looked taken aback. "You're going to be pulling a prank on Sirius? It'll never work -"

"Oh, don't worry about that. He knows about it. He lost a bet and these are the consequences." Remus said while grinning manically.

"A bet? What was it about?" Clara enquired. "No ... actually, I don't want to know. But what is going to happen and why do you need me?"

"Well ..." Remus leaned in to whisper in her ear and at the end of Remus' explanation, Clara had tears rolling down her face, she was laughing so hard.

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James was furious! It was well past midnight and he had just had the worst day of his life. First in the early hours of the morning Lily plays hard to get and confuses him so he doesn't know what is going on; he gets humiliated in front of the whole school; a bird shits on his head; makes a total fool out of himself by going mad at Snape in Hogsmeade; and now he had just got off his first night of detention with Pringle. 'That man is so evil, he should be locked up!' James shuddered as he remembered what he had to do.

It was no ordinary punishment like polishing trophies or at the worst cleaning toilets. No, what James had experienced right now, had been much, much worse than anything he had ever done.

Tending to Pringle's feet, rubbing down his corns, washing away the fungus and giving him a foot massage had been the most revolting thing James had ever experienced. 'And I've got a whole 30 more days to go,' James groaned. This was going to be one long month. Luckily for him, because he was staying here for Christmas, he got from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day off. McGonagall managed to find that very small mercy for him.

Rubbing his eyes, he tried to see in front of him. Tiredness was blurring his vision and all he wanted to do now was collapse on his bed and sleep forever. Yawning, James was making his way down the Charms corridor when he heard voices. Remembering that he had permission to be out at this time, he kept walking.

Someone was coming out of a classroom door to the right not far from where James was. He wasn't sure, but James thought that looked like Sandra Hardcastle. He smiled as memories he had created with that girl flitted to the front of mind. 'I wonder who she's been shagging tonight then?'

James hid behind a statue of a hump back wizard as he spied on Sandra. He wanted to know who she had been with. A couple of moments later, a guy met her at the doorway. They shared a long and passionate kiss. It was only when they pulled away when James recognised who the guy was.

The tall, dark haired and handsome figure belonged to someone James knew very well. James happened to know this person very well. Very well indeed. He waited for Sandra to walk away and when she rounded the corner and out of certain earshot, James stood up and confronted the dark figure.

"Sirius! I can't believe you would go and cheat on your girlfriend like that!" James announced as he tried to keep laughter out of his voice.

Sirius jumped as he had been watching Sandra walk away and James coming up behind him startled him no end. Spinning around he came face to face with James.

The look on Sirius' face was a picture.

"James!" Sirius said with startlement. "What're you doing here?"

James raised an eyebrow. "I could ask the same about you, but I think I can figure out what you were doing. But as for me, I've just finished my first nights detention so I'm going to bed."

Sirius was looking extremely guilty now. He was shifting his feet about and was rubbing the back of his neck. "Hey, look, you won't tell Debbie will you? I mean, she'd totally freak if she found out."

"No I won't." James said while smiling. "But I really don't think it is fair to do this to her. She is totally besotted with you."

"Look, I'm tired. Lets go to bed." Sirius said. He still looked shifty as if there was something else James hadn't quite figured out yet.

"Stop changing the subject." James said. "But I agree. We'll talk about this in the common room."

It turns out that Sirius had James' invisibility cloak with him so he stayed under the cloak while James walked beside him.

They reached the common room and they both sat down on the sofa in front of the dying embers of the fire. Nobody else was there as they had all gone up to bed. James and Sirius sat there for about fifteen minutes before Sirius finally cracked and spilled his secret.

"Two months!" James exclaimed.

Sirius was looking very grim now. He couldn't say a word. He was speechless, so he just nodded his head.

"I can't believe you've been seeing Sandra Hardcastle behind Debbie's back for two whole months!" James was astounded. Though the shock didn't last long. Sirius was renound for doing this sort of thing. He was an even worse womaniser than James was. And that was saying something.

"Oh, shut up." Sirius growled. "I'm going to bed." He got up and made his way to the boys' staircase.

"Sirius, mate. Thank you." James said.

"What for?"

"For cheering me up. I've had a torturous night with Pringle and this had perked me right up.

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Tweet tweet tweet.

'Ugh, go away,' Lily thought as the twittering interrupted her sleep. She was rather annoyed because she had been having a very enjoyable dream involving James Potter and herself. It closely resembled what had happened last Christmas. 'That's just what I need to think about as soon as I wake up; James Potter,' Lily groaned.

Tweetity tweet twit tweet.

Lily was very temped to throw something through the window. Anything to stop the noisy bird.

Tweet tweet.

Groaning, she finally gave up and opened her eyes and immediately wished she hadn't. The sun was shining very brightly into the dorm room and almost blinded her. Squinting through the brightness, she checked the clock on her bedside table. 9am. Looking over to the other beds, Lily noticed the other four girls were asleep. Beth who slept in the end bed was even snoring lightly.

'Ugh, 9am. This is far too early to be up on a Sunday morning.' But normally if she woke up like this, sleep wouldn't find her again. Lily decided to get up.

Putting on a pair of tight fitting jeans and a green t-shirt which had the saying 'Young, Free and Single,' Lily made her way down to the common room. There weren't that many people there. Some people had obviously gone down to breakfast, but sitting in an armchair next to the fire was a black haired teenager with glasses and hazel eyes.

James Potter.

Oh, great. Just who she wanted to see. Lily tried to walk out of the common room without James seeing her, but he looked up and spotted her. Before she got to the portrait hole, James called her name. She ignored him and made her way to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Lily made her way through the stone corridors and peering out of the windows gave her a beautiful sight. Everything was still covered in frost, causing everything to sparkle. She smiled to herself. She had a feeling not much would make her smile today, but at least the scenery could.

"Hey, Lily!"

Lily stopped in her tracks. She recognised that voice. Turning round, she saw James running towards her, having just come out of the portrait hole.

"James, don't. I'm not in the mood." Lily said, turning around to walk away from him.

"Look, I know you're pissed off with me for nearly strangling Snape yesterday. But can we at least talk?" James said with an almost pleading note in his voice.

"No!" Lily yelled as she kept on walking, leaving a confused James behind.

It was going to be one of those days.

And entering the Great Hall didn't make her feel any better either. The instant she made herself seen in there, all the Slytherins started cheering and were shouting out very rude comments. Lily felt tears pricking her eyes. Turning away she walked straight back out of the hall. Trying to keep the tears away, she made her way out of the front doors and onto the front lawn.

Unknown to her, a certain boy followed her.

Lily found her self down at a large beech tree down by the lake's edge. It was a very peaceful place this; a good place to sit and think. 'And for other things too ...' Lily thought. 'Ok, bad thought. Stop thinking about that now! No more thoughts about James Potter and last Christmas. No more!'

Drying off a place underneath the tree with her wand she sat down. Thousands of thoughts rolling around in her head. What was she to do? 'Snape is such a bastard! Just when my life starts going right again, he has to ruin it!' Anger coursed throughout her. Life was so unfair! Lily punched the tree as hard as she could and instantly regretted it.

"Ow." she said weakly.

"Hey what did that tree ever do to you?"

Lily must have jumped a foot in the air and let out a small scream. "Remus! Don't do that. You trying to give me a heart attack?"

Remus sat down next to her and chuckled softly under his breath. "You hang around with Clara far too much."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing." Remus said shaking his head. "Hey I brought you some toast. Figured you would be hungry."

"Thanks." Lily said with a grateful sigh.

There was about a minutes silence between them as Lily ate some of her toast. Both of them just stared out at the lake which had frozen over. Neither of them really knew what to say.

Remus broke the silence. "So ... you ok?"

"Hey, I often wonder what happens to the Giant Squid at winter time." Lily said. "I mean, does he stay in there or what?"

"Lily, stop changing the subject."

Lily turned towards her friend. "Sorry. It's just ..."

"Want to talk about it?"

"It's just this whole thing with James and ..."

"Snape?"

"You read my mind." Lily said as she shivered slightly only just realising how cold it really was out there.

"Here, take my jacket." Remus said as he put his coat over Lily's shoulders. "So tell me all about it and we'll see if your uncle Remus can make it all better."

Lily laughed. "You always have an answer for everything don't you."

"Well, we'll just have to see what I come up with." Remus said with a grin and a twinkle in his eye.

"Oh my god, you hang around with Sirius far too much." Lily laughed. "He's rubbing off on you."

"Remus looked thoughtful for a few seconds. "I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult."

"Neither do I." Lily said seriously.

They both burst into laughter.

Lily noticed Remus was shivering. "Hey, if we huddle up, we could keep ourselves warmer."

Remus smiled and he wrapped his arms around Lily. She leaned in closer and rested against his chest.

Lily noticed that Remus' heart was beating very quickly. "What's up?" she asked him.

"Nothing."

Lily didn't say anything. She just lay there in Remus' arms. It felt strange to be with Remus like this, having never had his arms around her like this before. But they were only keeping each other warm, so it wasn't like anything was going on. 'Maybe we should go back up to the castle,' Lily thought, 'this is getting weird.' But she didn't budge. Whatever her brain told her, her muscles ignored because she didn't move an inch. It actually felt quite comfortable here. In Remus' arms. With Remus. 'Remus? Yes, with Remus.'

Lily didn't know what was going on but with everything happening recently, her emotions were totally all over the place. Hormones emerging when she least expected. And this was NOT good timing for her hormones to be indecisive and in control. Definitely not!

Remus' heart was still beating frantically and Lily turned towards him to question him again. Now, this was an awkward situation. Their faces were only a couple of inches apart. The closeness was so ... unexplainable. Lily knew this was wrong. Of course it was wrong. But at the moment she just wasn't thinking straight.

The gap between them closed as Remus leaned down and placed his lips upon hers. Lily felt an instant rush of adrenaline. This is so wrong, she kept thinking. But she didn't stop.

The kiss lasted for about a minute before Lily came to her senses.

'James!'

Lily pulled away. How could she do this to James? Sure things might be a bit awkward between them at the moment, but she still cared for him. Full realisation of what had just happened, swamped Lily's mind. It had obviously shown on her face because Remus immediately appeared very uncomfortable.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Remus stood up and backed away. "I-I'm sorry. That s-shouldn't have h-happened. I am so sorry." he stuttered. And turning away from Lily he ran back up the lawn to the castle.

Still sitting on the ground, Lily really didn't know what to think. She had just kissed Remus. Remus!

Burying her head in her arms, Lily began to cry softly, tears rolling down her cheeks.

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James turned away from the window. He was standing in a corridor where the windows faced out towards the lake. He had been admiring the beauty of the scenery a minute before as the sun shone down on the frost covered landscape making everything shine and sparkle. The lake was frozen over and he had just been wondering to himself about the Giant Squid when something caught his eye. That something that had caught his eye made him so angry, so infuriated, the next person he saw was likely to end up in the Hospital Wing for a week, whoever it was.

Blinking back tears from his hazel eyes, he tried to reason out what had just happened. Lily? Remus? No, that wasn't right. Just NOT right!

Placing his hands on the windowsill, James tried to take a few calming breaths. 'Just got to calm down.'

James then realised he was shaking all over and the tears were now rolling freely down his face. 'How could he? He's meant to be one of my best friends!' James' hands were now balled up into fists. Breathing quickly and heavily, he couldn't keep this in much longer. The next move he made wasn't perhaps that clever, but at least he managed to vent a little of his anger out on something.

Punching a solid stone wall when you're angry is not normally a very good idea. James certainly figured this out when he discovered his knuckles were now covered in blood. But he didn't care about that. He didn't even feel the physical pain for the pain in his heart was much greater.

Leaning his fists against the windowsill, he tried once again to calm down. But how could he when he had just seen Lily and Remus ... James couldn't even bare thinking about it. He was so ANGRY!

James punched the stone wall again. He never even realised he had done it until he felt the tiny little bit of pain. Pain that felt so far away, but it was there.

"James?"

James spun round and was faced with the one person he did not need to see at this moment in time. Clenching his teeth, he tried to keep his temper.

"James, what's wrong?" Remus enquired.

"You'd better stay well away from me!" James growled.

"James, what -"

"Stop playing the innocent with me." James said, his voice getting louder, his fists clenched so tight they hurt. "I'm warning you, just stay well away from me!"

Remus' brown eyes suddenly looked shocked and panicky. His voice unsteady. "You didn't see ...?"

James was going red in the face now. All the anger inside of him, he couldn't keep it all bottled up for much longer. "Oh, I seen it!" he was yelling at Remus now. "You looked very cosy indeed!"

Remus' face had gone a ghostly white. "Wait, it wasn't like that -"

James couldn't take this for much longer. He turned on his heel and made his way back to the Gryffindor common room. He felt if he didn't do that, hitting Remus and certainly breaking a few of his bones would have been the other option.

"Flobberworm!" James growled at the Fat Lady.

"James!" Remus shouted.

James went through the portrait hole and before he made it to the boys' staircase, Remus had caught up with him. There weren't that many people in the common room, but it was enough to make an audience.

Spinning round to face Remus again, James stared at him. "Leave! Me! Alone!" he yelled.

"James I -"

"YOU KNOW EXACTLY HOW I FEEL ABOUT HER!" James shouted. "YOU'RE MEANT TO BE MY FRIEND!"

"It wasn't like that!"

"Oh fk off!" James yelled and he turned around to make his way up the boys' staircase.

James felt a hand on his arm. 'Why won't he just leave me alone?!' Spinning around again, this was the last straw. James couldn't keep control of his anger anymore. His fist went flying through the air, and it made contact with someone. Remus.

Remus lost his balance and fell over backwards, blood pouring down his face. Putting a hand up to feel the damage, he looked really scared when there was blood all over his hand. "Bastard!" was all Remus could yell.

"YOU DESERVED IT!" James screamed. "AND IF I SEE YOU ANYWHERE NEAR ME OR LILY AGAIN, I'LL KILL YOU!" James lunged himself towards Remus again. He had completely lost all of his self control.

They were both rolling about on the floor, James trying to inflict as much pain on Remus as he could. He felt Remus needed to feel something compared to James' broken heart.

The younger pupils who were in the common room, stopped and stared at the two seventh years fighting. Nobody tried to stop them. To interrupt James when he was like this was a BIG mistake. So they kept well clear.

After about five minutes of this, the portrait hole opened. Lily and Sirius entered. Sirius looked on in complete shock. He had never seen James and Remus like this before. "What the hell is this all about?" he whispered to Lily.

"I-I don't know." she sounded rather shaken. She obviously hadn't told Sirius what had happened between her and Remus. Not being able to watch this, she ran away up to her dormitory crying.

James didn't see anything that was happening around him. His concentration was solely on the one person in front of him. So he was surprised to feel a pair of hands tugging at his shoulders pulling him away.

"What the ..."

Sirius was suddenly in front of James with a very confused look on his face. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

"Oh, don't worry Sirius! I have a VERY good reason for doing this!" James growled. His breathing very heavy once again.

Remus was staring back at him with a few more cuts and bruises. But the look he gave James was one of absolute terror.

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Before you ask. Yes I am insane. Oh, but this was soooo much fun to write. Oh my god! Remus and Lily! Ok, I was having an evil moment when I wrote them. A VERY evil moment. Muahahaha!!!

This chapter has gotten far too serious though. The end is just totally far too serious. Ok I will try to put more humour and snogging in the next chapter. I'll try.

Oh my god! I watch FAR too many soaps! They are the reason I'm doing so many evil and wrong things. I mean I only watch Neighbours, Coronation Street an Eastenders. That's all.

But the punch up between James and Remus was so much fun. grins evilly.

Ok, right. Targets for next chapter.

More humour

More snogging

Right, now we've got that out of the way, you, my faithful readers and new readers alike can now make your way to the review section.

Bottom left of screen and click. Yay!

Thank you

Pingu


	5. Some Unexpected Happenings

**CHAPTER FIVE - SOME UNEXPECTED HAPPENINGS**

Hello! It's me again! Finally! I know, I know, I know, it's taken me AGES to post this chapter up, but hey it isn't my fault, honest! I blame it on the lack of creativity, shortage of inspiration and scarceness of the correct imagination! In other words, I had the dreaded writer's block! I HATE that dam thing, it's evil!!! The most annoying thing with this chapter is that I got quite a long way into it, then it just stopped and WOULD NOT budge any further! But fear not, my creativity is back! It happened at work while I was doing some REALLY boring stuff and it hit me! I couldn't wait to get home and write it down. Aah, Inspiration, I missed you ...

Anyhoo, thank you to all my reviewers, especially Desolation Lily, cause you are my ONLY faithful reviewer having reviewed on every one of my chapters. And my new reviewers, I always seem to get so many.

Also, another thing, a few questions have been raised, like Lily/Remus being together. No no no no no no! That is so NOT going to happen! And ONE person wondered about whether or not Lily and Snape slept together. You will find your answer to that at the bottom of the page.........

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Sirius sighed. It was Christmas Eve and everything was meant to be happy and joyful. But no, not this Christmas. Ever since the fallout between Remus and James, the atmosphere in the place had become increasingly tense. All the Marauders (apart from Peter) were staying at Hogwarts for Christmas along with Lily, Clara, Gail and Heidi. The last two girls slept in the same dorm as Lily and Clara, and so were known to the Marauders.

Gail was a small, outspoken girl. But when she wasn't being blunt, she was normally quite shy. Sirius had once dated her waaaaay back in first year. 'Woah, that feels like a century ago.' They only went out for a week, before Sirius dumped her for being too quiet. And it wasn't that she wasn't good looking. Gail had baby blue eyes, a round face and long curly blonde hair. Gorgeous, in Sirius' opinion, but just not enough.

Then of course, was Heidi. She had tanned skin with straight black hair which fell to her waist, dark eyes and a pretty smile. The problem with her was that she was too much of a bookworm. Oh, she was clever (the glasses especially radiated her intelligence), but she always seemed to reside in her shell. Heidi only came out if you got her drunk. On the upside, she was a great person to go to if you wanted to talk about any problems. Sirius had gone out with her in second year also, but she was too serious for his liking.

Anyway, there they all were. It was in the middle of the afternoon and they were the only ones in the common room. The rest of the Gryffindors that had stayed were elsewhere. Nobody was saying a thing. Remus and James were sitting at opposite sides of the room to each other. Remus pretending to do homework while James lounged on the couch and stared into the fireplace. Lily and Clara were up in their dormitory while Gail and Heidi sat with him in the other comfortable chairs.

James' and Remus' fight had been two days ago and Sirius still hadn't been told what it was about. Neither of them had told him. But from the information he squeezed from a few younger students, he managed to figure it out. Lily's name had cropped up and to tell the truth, Sirius wasn't surprised since he found out their argument had been about a girl. Only James could get that wound up about Lily. But there was still something missing, something vital which was obviously at the root of the problem. Sirius had tried questioning Lily, but no such luck. This whole situation was driving him crazy. Remus and James weren't talking and Lily wasn't talking to either of them. You could cut the air with a knife, the atmosphere was that bad.

"Hey guys, anyone for exploding snap?" Sirius called out to the room hoping to break the silence.

Nobody replied. Gail only looked at him while Heidi glared at him as if to say she didn't think a game of exploding snap was a very good idea and that he was being insensitive. Sirius knew this because she had given him that look many times over the years.

"What?" Sirius asked, directing his question to Heidi. "What did I do this time?"

Heidi looked away.

Silence.

Sirius went over to sit next to James. "What the hell is going on between you and Remus?"

"Nothing." James mumbled.

"James." Sirius said warningly. "Tell me or else I might just have to let slip your deepest secret to everybody here. And indeed the whole school."

"Go ahead." James said, looking up into Sirius' eyes. "You wouldn't be my first friend to betray me."

"I'm going to the Library." Remus had got up from his seat and was making his way to the portrait hole.

"Oh that's it. Run away like the coward you are." James spat. "Scared I'm going to spill your little secret?"

The look Remus gave James then was strange. Sirius couldn't make it out. Was there fear in those brown eyes? Regret? Sorrow? Or was it pity? Sirius couldn't decide. "I know what I did was wrong, James, and I don't blame you for reacting like this. But can you at least talk it over with Lily?"

"Remus." Sirius leapt out of his chair and over to his other friend. "What is going on?"

Remus glanced at James before he answered. "I kissed Lily."

Sirius just stood there with his mouth wide open, eyes nearly popping out of his head. He had to be wrong. Glancing over at James, he had a very grim look on his face which confirmed what Remus had just said. Sirius couldn't believe it. Remus and Lily?!

"Woah, woah, woah! So that is why Lily has been in a bad ass mood since Sunday?" Gail said. "Man, you're an idiot Remus. And that's putting it politely."

"Thanks, Gail. You've made me feel so much better." Remus said sarcastically.

"Life's a bitch." James suddenly said.

Sirius looked startled and he stared at James. Smiling, he whispered under his breath, "The Four Stages."

"What was that?" Remus asked.

"I can't believe I have only just figured this out now. It doesn't just apply to girls."

"Huh?" Remus said, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Just as James said. Life's a bitch. But it doesn't finish there."

It had finally dawned on Remus. Realisation of what Sirius was saying. "But obviously the last bit would have to be changed slightly."

"Obviously."

"What are you guys on about?" James said.

"Nothing." Sirius and Remus said at the same time.

And before James could question them further, they were interrupted by a shout from up the girls' staircase. "WHAT!"

That sounded like Clara's voice. Everybody was staring in that direction but nobody moved. Sirius decided to go up there and see what was going on. Before he reached the staircase though, Lily had just emerged and was rushing past everybody mumbling about how she had to go to the library.

Making his way up to the girls' dorm, Sirius opened the door. Clara was standing in the middle of the floor with a very disgusted look on her face.

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"Hey Clara, what's up?"

Clara jumped as she obviously hadn't heard Sirius come in. 'Oh my god, it's Sirius. Ok calm down.' Turning round to face him, she tried to put on an innocent unsurprised face, but failed miserably. "Sirius, what are you doing here?"

"It's a free country isn't it?"

"Not in this dorm it's not."

"So what were you and Lily arguing about?"

"Sirius, go away. It's none of your business." Clara said angrily as she went over to sit on her bed.

Sirius followed her and sat down next to her. "Tell your Uncle Sirius, and we'll see if we can make it all better."

"You are such a dirty minded male." Clara said disgustedly.

"Hey, I wasn't actually tuned into that part of my brain." Sirius said. "But since you mentioned it, I can think that way if you want. And anyway, you've got a dirty mind as well."

Clara wasn't really sure what to say to that. Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. 'Oh no, what do I do now?' Finally she said, "I hate you."

"Aaw, Clara you know you don't mean that. You love me really." Sirius said while putting his hand on her leg.

'Oh my god, he's coming on to me,' Clara thought, then said, "Are you coming on to me, Black?"

"Why, I believe I am." Sirius said in a cocky voice. "Got a problem with that?"

"Yes, I have actually." Clara said, removing Sirius' hand as it had been wandering up her leg. "And can you please keep your hands to yourself."

"Oh, sorry about that." Sirius said in a husky whisper. "It's just that when I get horny, my hands can crop up in the most unexpected places." Sirius again ran his hand up her leg.

Clara burst out laughing. "Oh my god, that has got to be one of the corniest lines you have come out with. And the sickest."

"Hey, guys have feelings too." Sirius said with a mock hurt expression on his face. "And it ain't my fault if you decided to wear another low cut top today, because that is just asking for me to look at your -"

"You are so shallow." Clara said with a smile playing on her lips. "But hey, looks like it worked."

"Can I kiss you?"

Clara looked taken aback. "What if I say no?" she said with a challenging look in those chocolate brown eyes. 'He he he, I just love playing with his mind.'

"Then I'll just leave." Sirius said, getting up.

'Ok, plan not working. Resort to plan B,' Clara thought. 'Right, good idea. Just one problem, what is plan B?'

"Sirius sit down." Clara said.

"And why should I?" Sirius said giving her his cute innocent look. Except he wasn't innocent. His eyes gave him away big style.

Fine, if he was going to play it that way. "Fine, I'll just have to take a bath all on my own then." and Clara got up and made her way to the bathroom. Just as she closed the door she called, "You not coming in with me?"

Sirius was in there like a shot.

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"What is he doing up there?" Gail said breaking the silence between the three of them. Remus had gone to the library.

"Who cares. Hey Gail I'm bored, wanna have a snowball fight?" Heidi asked.

"Sure, you coming James?" Gail asked.

Silence.

"James?"

"What? Huh?"

"Never mind. Hey look, I'll get our cloaks." Gail said. That would give her an excuse to find out what Sirius and Clara were up to.

She made her way up the staircase and entered the dorm room. Nobody was in there. Strange. Oh well. Gail grabbed both her and Heidi's cloaks and was about to go when she heard a funny noise and a splash. It had come from the bathroom.

Gail put her ear up to the door and finally figured out where Sirius and Clara were.

Making her way down the stairs and back into the common room, Gail had a knowing look on her face.

"What's up with you?" Heidi enquired.

"Oh nothing." Gail said. "Hey James, is Sirius still going out with Debbie?"

"Yeh, why?" he said as he looked up.

"Well, he won't be for much longer if she finds out what he's up to at the moment."

James looked confused.

"Come on James, use your brain. Sirius Black in bathroom with a girl he's not meant to be with. What do you think he's doing?"

James looked startled. "What, he's up there with Sandra?"

"Sandra? Sandra Hardcastle? Why do you think he would be up there with her?"

"Oh shit." James whispered under his breath, then speaking normally, "Oh ... uh, no reason."

"He's seeing Sandra behind Debbie's back, while he's at the moment having sex with Clara behind both their backs?" Gail said astonished. "Honestly, I thought he'd grown out of all that."

"Uh ... no. I mean yes. Wait a minute ... what?"

"James, you as good as confessed his secret."

"Shit!"

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James watched Gail and Heidi walk out of the portrait hole, with smiles on their faces. Sirius was going to kill him. He was dead meat, totally. Ah well, not much could be done about it now. It wasn't his fault Sirius was a serial womaniser. While Sirius had got worse as he got older, James got better. That was probably because he was so head over heels for Lily. Yeah that'll be it. Women!

James suddenly heard footsteps coming down the girls' staircase and sat up, ready for what was about to happen.

Sirius came down first and it looked as if he was preparing himself for a roomful of insinuations to come flying at him, but then he only spotted James there. "Hey Clara, there's nobody here except James. It's safe to come down."

Clara came down the stairs trying to look innocent. But James wasn't fooled. Sirius was an expert at this sort of thing. When he needed to pretend he hadn't done something, he was a great actor. But Clara was obviously inexperienced to this as she turned bright red.

James sat up in his chair and faced his two friends. "So, what have you two been up to?" he said with a smile on his face and a knowing look in his eyes.

"Talking." Clara replied, rather too quickly to be believed. "Where are Gail and Heidi?" she said obviously trying to change the subject.

"Outside, having a snowball fight."

"Right, well, I think I'll go join them." and with that she was off.

Sirius was about to follow her when James said, "You haven't grown up one bit have you?" he said, still smiling.

"I don't know what you mean." was Sirius' reply.

"Have a nice bath?"

Sirius stopped in his tracks and collapsed down on the couch next to James. "How did you know?" he sighed.

"Gail went upstairs to get something and she heard you." James said simply.

"Oh shit," Sirius said into his hands, "now the whole school's going to know."

"And I kinda might of let it slip a little bit about you and Sandra ..." James said a bit fearfully.

"What!" Sirius yelled. "How ... what -"

"It was an accident. When Gail said you were up there with someone I thought of Sandra."

"Bastard."

"I know, but is it my fault you're such a womaniser?"

"You've done worse." Sirius said trying to take some of the heat off himself.

"Yeah, in like fifth year." James said. "I've grown up since then."

"Alright, I might be bad with girls. But that isn't much compared to you falling out with one of your best mates and your crush all in one day."

James stared at Sirius. He just didn't understand. "You never saw them." he said in deadly whisper.

"James, seriously now, can you really see Lily and Remus as a couple?"

James was getting angry now. "That's not the point." he growled.

"It was probably a heat of the moment thing that they both regret and -"

"Do you have any idea how it felt to see them kissing?" James said with hurt in his voice.

Sirius paused. After a moment he answered, "You haven't even let either of them explain. If you just talked to them, I'm sure this whole thing would be cleared up in no time." James remained silent, while giving Sirius daggers. "Oh come on, it's Christmas!" Sirius tried in desperation.

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Lily was sitting in the library with a book open in front of her, pretending to read. It really was a very interesting book called, "The History Of Mediaeval Witches And Wizards In The Time Of The Black Death." But right now, she just couldn't concentrate. At the moment Remus was hovering around nearby bookshelves, apparently intent on looking for something. This bugged her because Lily and Remus hadn't talked about what had happened between the both of them the other day. It was driving her up the wall. And what irritated her even more was that Remus kept looking over at her as if he considered coming over, but he never did.

Fed up of all this, Lily got up, put the book away again in its rightful shelf and made her way over to Remus.

Remus looked round casually as she came up beside him and said, "Oh, hello Lily," and went back to searching through the books.

"Remus, we need to talk." Lily said as she took hold of his sleeve and lead him over to a corner of the library. They both sat down opposite each other. Remus appeared rather nervous and he couldn't look Lily in the eye. He kept fidgeting in his seat.

"Lily, I -" he started.

"Shut up and listen." Lily said and she peered into his brown eyes, causing him to look up. He was blushing slightly. "What happened on Sunday was a mistake. I am so sorry if I lead you along but I don't feel anything for you apart from friendship." she bit her lip as she looked worriedly at Remus.

But, instead of him getting upset like she thought he would, he laughed. He was more relaxed now and his eyes had that familiar twinkle in them. "Oh my god, I am so glad you said that. I don't know how it happened either but I suppose I was scared that you might prefer me over James. And that just would not do" he said as he laughed some more. "Especially after all the effort me and Sirius put into getting you two back together."

Lily's face dropped. 'Did he say what I thought he just said? Oh my god, does he know?' "What do you mean 'getting you two back together'?"

It was Remus' turn to look mortified. He kept opening and closing his mouth, evidently trying to think of an explanation. But nothing came to him.

"Preferably the truth Remus." Lily said seriously. "Particularly if you still want to keep your masculinity."

"Oh ... um ... ah." Remus stuttered. Then he sighed as he finally gave in. "Fine ..." and he told her the whole story. Lily wasn't best pleased.

As Remus finished Lily got up. "I've got to go."

"Lily, I -"

"No, don't worry about it Remus, I'm not mad at you, or even Sirius, I just realised that I need to go talk with James."

Remus just smiled at her.

Making her way out of the library neither of them noticed a pair of eyes following Lily as she left. Remus looked away and that person got up and pursued her as Lily made up her mind about finding James.

Walking down a corridor, Lily was so intent on what she was going to say to James, she never realised someone was following her. Her mind was in a tangle and needed a serious sorting out. All this falling out with James was really getting on her nerves. After fighting with him for nearly four months over him sleeping with some random girl, Lily really didn't want this all over again. They had just made up last Friday and already she had mucked everything up by snogging his best mate. 'Every time we get close, something always seems to go wrong.' Lily didn't deny that it was her fault this time, but James was no angel. He had nearly killed Snape the other day. Lily sighed. Were they never going to get together?

Just then, Lily felt someone put a hand on her shoulder. She spun round and came face to face with Jacob Meadows. He was a Slytherin sixth year, tall with blonde hair and pale green eyes.

"Well hello there, Evans." he said casually as he moved towards her causing Lily to back up against the wall right next to a statue of a tall and proud wizard.

Lily was scared now. He wasn't a very nice person to be around and she knew that for a fact. It had been a few years ago now when one of her friends from Ravenclaw had been dating him. Well, lets just say when she dumped him, he hadn't been best pleased. Apparently, to him, Katlyn leaving with bruises had been lucky. Lily had heard other stories about him, none of them good. She was scared of what he might do. But she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of showing it.

"Piss off, Meadows." she spat.

"Now I don't think you're in the position to make me angry." he said silkily.

He was right. Lily was in a corner with the statue and Jacob blocking her escape. But she was still defiant as she tried to stand up to him. "What do you want, Meadows?" she asked coldly.

"Now, I'm glad you asked me that," he said, "because I've heard rumours about you."

Lily stared into his eyes, striving to prove not just to him, but to herself that she couldn't be bullied by this Slytherin. Jacob's eyes were like pale green ice, they were so cold. Lily wanted to shiver but forced herself to stay calm. "Look, I haven't got time for this. So if you would just let me go I can get back to what I was doing before you started harassing me."

Jacob gave her a cold stare which made her look away. He was starting to break down her force field. Getting scared now, Lily wished that someone, anyone, would find them and save her.

"Look, what do you want?!" Lily said, with a slight bit of fear in her voice.

Jacob must have noticed this because he smiled, although it didn't reach his eyes. "I want you." he said in a whisper. "I've heard you're easy." He let one of his hands wander up under her top.

Lily froze. She didn't want him doing this. Just as his hand nearly reached its desired location, Lily got the feeling back in her body and slapped Jacob across the face.

Lily instantly regretted this because he looked back round at her with a manic glint in his eyes. He was angry now. Jacob took hold of her shoulders and pinned her against the wall. "Oh, you're gonna be sorry that you ever did that you filthy little mudblood." he growled.

Ok, Lily was petrified. She really needed someone to rescue her now. But until that happened she still had to stand up to him. "You deserved it." she spat back.

Then he did something that Lily really did not expect. He forced his lips down upon hers as he kissed her. Lily was flailing to get away from him but he was just too strong for her. She was hating this. When was it going to end?

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James hated it when Sirius was right. There he was walking next him with a rather smug look on his face while James had a very defeated air about him. James knew he had to apologise to Lily and Remus. Sirius could be VERY persuasive when he needed to be. They were making their way down to the library and all the while James was trying to think of what to say when he got there. Currently his thinking was going along the lines of begging on his hands and knees. 'No, that would be way too embarrassing and would look so desperate.' Come on, this was James Potter here. He does have some dignity.

While he was mulling these thoughts over in his head, Sirius and himself turned a corner into another corridor. What he saw in front of him then made his blood curdle. Anger rose up inside him as he watched Jacob Meadows a few feet away kissing Lily. Lily! How could he?! James froze on the spot and watched as Lily struggled against him. James glanced at Sirius who was beside him and he looked just as shocked. James realised he couldn't just stand here like a fool; he had to do something.

So he did.

Moving forwards, the general plan was basically going to be to smash his head in. Yeh, good plan. But before he could go any further, he felt someone grab him. Whipping around to glare at Sirius, he whispered, "Why are you stopping me? Let me go!"

Sirius had that mischievous look in his eyes again. "Calm down, leave it to the professionals."

James was confused now. "What are you talking about? What professionals?"

Sirius shook his head with disappointment. "WE are the professionals, you moron." Sirius said. "Now observe." Sirius took out his wand and made a show of twirling it through his fingers before he muttered a hex under his breath.

James looked over at Jacob who now had bright red spiky hair and burst out into a fit of silent laughter. Now, understanding what Sirius was talking about, James too, took out his wand and pointed it at Meadows.

Indeed, the addition of a lovely pigs tail gave his appearance a very bizarre twist.

Now, Sirius was the one had to lean against the wall for support. His face going red with silent laughter. James smiled triumphantly.

Jacob at this point had no idea what was going on and had just stopped kissing Lily. As they pulled apart, Lily saw his hair and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. Trying not to smile, she spotted James and Sirius over Jacob's shoulder. James put a finger to his lips, motioning for her not to acknowledge their presence there, and he performed another hex on Meadows.

Jacob starting talking to Lily again. Perhaps he was trying to sound menacing and perhaps threatening. But James' hex put a stop to all that. But of course, when the voice of Daffy Duck tries to scare you, it does take some of the heat off.

Lily, now of course, couldn't keep a straight face. She burst into a fit of the giggles as Meadows was now reduced to a blabbering idiot. He looked scared as well as he didn't a clue to what was going on, until that is he turned around.

James and Sirius had now resorted to laughing out loud. Tears were streaming down their faces and they were bent double as they struggled to breathe. As Jacob turned round though, Lily spotted the pig's tail and had to lean on the statue behind her to keep herself from falling onto the floor. Jacob ignored Lily and tried to stand up to James and Sirius.

"I'll get you for this!" Jacob said in his cartoon voice.

James and Sirius just laughed harder.

As Jacob fumbled for his wand, James was rearranging himself to be ready for anything Meadows was going to throw at them. But what he saw when he straightened up, the sight he saw behind Lily and Jacob made him grin even more.

"Why hello, Professor Dumbledore!" James said. "How lovely it is to see you on this fine day!"

Jacob then just stared at James and Sirius. "I'm not going to fall for that one. You must think I'm stupid or -"

"Good afternoon, Mr Meadows." Dumbledore said from behind him. The familiar twinkle in his light blue eyes.

Jacob spun round on the spot and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the Headmaster. Taking a look round him, he ran for it. 'What a coward,' James thought.

James and Sirius then stood up straight in front of Dumbledore planting innocent looks on their faces, not sure what was going to happen to them now. Lily was also looking a little worried.

"Professor I can explain -" James started.

Dumbledore put up a hand which stopped James mid sentence and said, "I haven't seen you here. You haven't done a thing. I know nothing," then he walked off without another word.

James', Sirius' and Lily's mouths dropped open. Surprise replacing their guilt. Then James had a sudden idea.

"Professor!" he called as he ran after Dumbledore.

Turning round, Dumbledore wore a mildly quizzical look on his face as he peered at James with a smile. "Mr Potter, you are never innocent, so don't even try when I'm around.

"Oh, it's not about that, sir," James said, waving aside what the older man had said. "Can I talk to you about something? In private." as he glanced at Sirius and Lily.

"Of course," Dumbledore said cheerfully, "we'll go up to my office."

And with that the two of them made their way down the corridor to the stone gargoyle that was the entrance to Professor Dumbledore's study.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What's that all about?" both Lily and Sirius said in unison.

They turned to face each other and burst out laughing.

"Hey, what's so funny?" came a voice from behind them.

"Moony!" Sirius greeted as he put his arm around his friend's shoulders. "You have just missed one of THE greatest pranks we have ever pulled!"

"What?" Remus said sceptically. "Even better than the one we pulled last year on Snape that involved a house elf, a love letter, and a transfigured piece of shit?"

"That, my friend was something all four of us got caught for and spent a week each in detention." Sirius said cheerfully.

Remus looked confused.

Sirius walked over to Lily. "I'm afraid we're going to have to spell it out for him, Lily dearest." and then facing Remus, he started, "You see, that arsehole, Meadows from Slytherin was bothering Lily here and -"

"I'd better get back to the common room." Lily said abruptly and turned to go. She didn't really want her friends questioning her on the motives of Meadows' advances. She suddenly wanted to be on her own as the reality of the situation had just sunk in. Jacob Meadows had been coming on to her heavily until James and Sirius saved her from him. 'What if they hadn't been there though?' Lily thought. 'Anything could've happened.' She shuddered.

"Lily, you ok?" came Remus' concerned voice.

"Yeah, fine," she replied in a rather too cheery voice. "Anyway, thanks for helping me Sirius, you're a life saver."

Walking away from her friends, she fought to keep the tears from falling down her face. Lily didn't want anyone to see her crying, that would raise questions. Turning the corner, she was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she never saw someone walking towards her.

James stopped where he was and watched as Lily came towards him. She wasn't concentrating on anything else apart from trying to control her emotions. Lily walked right into James causing her to fall over backwards out of shock. It wasn't until she was on the ground and looked up, she realised who she had bumped into. Glancing up into his hazel eyes, Lily burst into tears. She really didn't want to do this in front of James Potter, but she couldn't help it. Sitting against the wall, Lily carried on crying and felt James sit down next to her and put his arms around her.

That did make her feel slightly better. Whenever James put his arms around her, she felt safe. Lily felt that nothing could ever harm her as long as James was protecting her.

He didn't say anything, but just sat there comforting Lily while absent mindedly stroking her hair. Not a question came out of his mouth the whole time, just reassuring comments and a couple of jokes thrown in in the vain attempt to lighten the mood. It did help, and Lily was glad James was there now, because he was the only person she felt she could be this comfortable with.

And so they sat there, Lily, in James' arms in a deserted corridor on Christmas Eve. Behind them, outside the castle windows, it was snowing, causing everything to be covered in beautiful, crystal snowflakes. The shouts and screams of laughter could be heard from out on the grounds where students where messing around in the snow. Happiness surrounds Christmas, but to dig deeper, the epitome is far from perfect. Reality still rules the dream, and the dream falters where real emotions fill it. Lily and James, on their journey of discovery, stumbled upon this point in their lives at this time of year, causing the real meaning of Christmas to hit them. As long as love, whether it be through friendship, family or from a partner, is being received and given out, life becomes that much more bearable. You don't need love to survive, but it helps us through the ups and downs of the unfair world we live on. Lily and James embraced the very essence of this idea and thus we leave them there, contemplating the minds of each other and their own complicated lives.

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Woo hoo! I finished the chapter FINALLY! It took me such a long time, but I'm so glad I've finished it. So hey, what do you think? Tell me honestly now. The review section is around here somewhere, all you have to do is click the button and away you go. Review to this and you'll make me SMILE (unless you're evil and flame it, but you won't will you).

Ooh yay, I can now get on with doing chapter six now which will be Christmas Day. Ooh, I just love Christmas. I'm gonna have a lot of fun with the next chapter.

Oh yeh, and the answer to the question about Lily/Snape is ...

............................ Ha ha ha ha ha ha I'm not going to tell you! Muahahahaha, I'm EVIL! You'll just have to read the next chapter cause I'll have the answer in there

What a good reason for you to keep on reading my fic ...

Muahahahahahahahahahahha!!!

So till next time ...

Good day and Farewell

Pingu


	6. Christmas Day

**CHAPTER SIX - CHRISTMAS DAY**

Hello! You missed me! Oh you didn't. Fine then. I don't like you either … JUST KIDDING. I love you really!

No really I do. I'm getting so many new reviewers; you make me so happy! It seems you love this story and want more so I have to comply with your demands and write another chapter. And here it is!

Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed to "My Last Breath", I can't believe people liked it so much! Apparently it made people cry!

**Personal Thank Yous**

**Lily.And.James.Forever**Yes, you do blabber too much and to be honest you confused me there. It doesn't take much to confuse me either. The last part sorta came out at the last minute and was one of those things I just HAD to write down. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

**Texasisforlobsters**Thank you!

**Judichild**Thank you! Enjoy the chapter.

**The all mighty and powerfulM**See, I updated! Yay! Enjoy!

**Anochera**:blushes: wow I can't believe you think I'm that good. I couldn't stop smiling after reading your review. But I do like to get my fics just right before posting them up, if there's a mistake I go crazy. I'm just too much of a perfectionist. And yes, I do watch A LOT of soaps; so much they're all wearing off on me. As for my plans with all the characters, you'll just have to find out when I tell you. So keep reading and enjoy this chapter! P.S. I think you're slightly crazy! Lol.

**kiko loves kurama**Ok, calm down. The chapter is here. Yes I know it has taken ages, but really there was no need to threaten me with knives and evil penguins. The evil penguins are MINE, not yours MINE! Ahem, anyhow, here you go. I hope you enjoy this chapter ….

And if I missed anyone out I apologise. I haven't looked at my e-mail in months. So thank you.

**Disclaimer:** As in previous chapters.

**WARNING:** This chapter is going to be totally full of fluff! No kidding, it's going to be overflowing with FLUFF. I personally love fluffy fics, and this is mine so you're going to have to put up with what I write. There is going to be A LOT of lovey doveyness.

So without further ado it is time to enter the realm of fluffiness …

James still had his eyes closed but he knew it was morning. He could hear people whispering in the room. The others were obviously up. Pretending to still be asleep, he listened to what they were saying.

"… water …"

" … all over him …"

And then there was some uncontrollable giggling going on and the other desperately trying to shush him.

'Oh, so they're going to try and pour water all over me, are they? Well guys, this isn't gonna work.'

James heard someone mutter a spell under their breath. Opening his eyes, he saw a splash of water coming out of a wand. Quickly as he could, James reached over for his wand on his bedside table and shouted the counter attack.

It was all over in a blink of an eye. But the after effects did last a little longer. The sight was so comical.

Remus and Sirius were standing there. There was definitely something different about Sirius. The water dripping off him onto the floor was a dead giveaway. He was completely soaked through. Sirius did not look happy. However, Remus who was standing next to Sirius had a very strange look on his face. He was completely dry, but the effort of trying not to laugh was showing.

James burst out laughing and said, "Moony, I think it's best if you let it all out, or else you're going to explode."

And indeed Remus did do that. He looked at Sirius and burst out laughing along with James.

Sirius however, wasn't looking best pleased. "Oh, shut up!" he growled as he dried himself magically.

"Well, that's what you get for trying to soak me." James said matter-of-factly.

"It was his idea!" Sirius said pointing to Remus, trying to get some of the heat taken off him.

"You know, I'd probably be really angry if it wasn't for the fact that me and Remus have made up." James said. "If you did this yesterday morning, I'd be pissed off."

"Look, lets just get downstairs." Sirius said quietly, but forcibly.

"I agree," James said. "The others will love to hear about this!"

All Sirius managed to do was mutter and curse under his breath. The morning was not going very well for him.

Five minutes later the three boys found themselves downstairs in the common room. There were a few younger students chatting away, discussing what they had got for Christmas and generally lazing about. It was a tradition with the seventh year friends that if they were staying at Hogwarts for Christmas, they all opened their presents together. So, underneath the tree in the corner by the girls staircase was all their presents. Some were large, some were small, and the three boys couldn't wait to open them. James and Remus sat on the couch in front of the roaring fire while Sirius sat in the comfy chair.

They probably sat there, for at least fifteen minutes before the first girl emerged from her dorm. The guys always hated it when they did this; the waiting was unbearable. James thought that it was another tradition the girls made on their own, to come down to the common room late just to irritate them. Honestly, it felt like the longest fifteen minutes ever!

Sirius was down on the floor by all the presents and was shaking the contents of every single one trying to guess what was in them. "Ooh, there's chocolate in this one," he said excitedly and then checked the label. His face dropped. "Oh, that one's yours, Moony."

"Oh thanks, Padfoot, I really wanted to know that." Remus replied sarcastically.

"But it is so obvious -"

"Sirius, step away from the presents." James said laughing at the behaviour of his best friend. Every Christmas, this is what Sirius would resort to. "How old are you? Five?

"Nope! I am three years, two months, one week and six days old." Sirius answered cheerfully with a huge grin. "Well, that is if you only count from three years ago.

"You'll never grow up will you?" came a voice from the girl's staircase. It was Gail. She had put her long, curly blonde hair up in a high ponytail leaving a few strands across her face and wore a sparkly blue top, which greatly accentuated her eyes.

"Gail!" he said loudly as he got up to hug her. "Merry Christmas! What did you get me?"

"Honestly, you get far too over excited on Christmas day," she said.

"Oh but this is just the beginning!" Sirius said elatedly. "Wait till tonight and you'll see me in full form!"

"Oh, don't I know it," Gail groaned. "I'm still recovering from what I saw last year when you got drunk."

"So are the other girls coming down any time soon?" Remus asked casually as Gail sat in the other armchair by the fire while Sirius went back to the presents.

"Aaw, you getting impatient?" she cooed.

Remus gave her one of his looks and said, "If they don't come down in the next five minutes, I'm gonna be down there with Sirius impatiently shaking the contents of every single present."

James and Gail laughed.

"Oh, come on," Remus said indignantly, "you know I'm always the next one to break after Sirius!"

"So, Gail," James said while running his fingers through his messy black hair. "Tell us, why does it take so long for you all to get down here in the morning?"

"Well, I'm only down here now cause I won the fight to get into the shower first." Gail said. "Lily will probably be the next one down as she got in after me. I would have thought that was obvious," she added in as an after thought.

"I always take my shower at night,"

"So do I," Remus said.

"So never in the morning?" Gail asked.

James and Remus instantly snorted at that remark, wild grins spread across their faces.

"Well, Sirius had a shower this morning …" Remus remarked.

"… of a sort." James finished.

"What do you mean?" Gail asked interestedly.

"Well now -" James started when he was interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the girls.

Lily came down first and James couldn't help but stare. She had her long red hair down but had straightened it. She was also wearing a pair of dark blue baggy jeans and a yellow t-shirt with green writing saying '_Bitch? … Moi?_' Clara was yet again wearing another low cut top and a pair of tight fitting jeans, with her hair loose. Heidi was wearing a green coloured off the shoulder top and black trousers with her hair tied back in a low ponytail.

James felt somebody close his mouth and noticed Remus beside him with a grin playing around on his mouth. James blushed.

Before anybody did anything Lily came over and grabbed James arm and led him out of the common room. Standing outside the portrait hole, they noticed the fat lady was there with a few guests, so they had to go round the corner. James didn't have a clue what was going on and was slightly worried.

"Lily, what's wrong?"

She had a rather serious look on her face and James was getting more worried by the second. "About yesterday …"

"Look, Lily I -"

"Thank you." Lily interrupted.

"What?"

"If you and Sirius hadn't turned up, who knows what might have happened." Lily said. "I would have said this to you yesterday … but, well …" she trailed off while looking away from James.

"You were crying too much." James said matter-of-factly.

Lily whipped her head round and glared at him.

James screwed up his face and said, "That was insensitive wasn't it?"

When he opened his eyes again, he found Lily smiling up at him. "Yes, James, it was. But look the point is -"

"There's a point to this?" James interrupted jokingly giving her one of his cheeky grins.

"Potter, you are this close to getting de-balled." Lily said with a smile while holding her thumb and forefinger very close together.

"Such a polite girl, aren't you?"

Lily gave him a murderous glare causing James to stutter and finally fall quiet.

"As I was saying, before somebody rudely interrupted me," Lily said, "I was coming to find you yesterday before I got ambushed. And well …" Lily was biting her lip, not sure what to say next.

"Well, isn't that a coincidence," James said cockily, "cause I was coming to find you as well."

Lily fell silent. Frowning slightly she said, "What is wrong with you this morning?"

"Huh?"

"You're very … twirly."

"That's a new word." James said with a smile. "When did you invent that one?"

Lily looked up at him exasperatedly. "Shut up. Look, what I want to say is …" Lily frowned again. "Wait a minute, why were you looking for me?"

James smiled and put his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him. "Because I wanted to give you this."

"And what did you want to give to me?" Lily said placing her hands on his arms looking deeply into his soft hazel eyes.

"Well, I'm not sure if you deserve it anymore," James said airily.

"Fine, I'll go back to the common room then," Lily said as she started to pull away from James.

But James wasn't having any of that. He pulled her even closer until their faces were an inch apart. James felt very nervous all of a sudden. He never knew whether Lily was going to kiss him or slap him. He looked into her deep green eyes and felt something go through them, like an electric current, but different. The spark, most people call it when two people are in love. They stayed like that for a few seconds, James could feel her breath on his face, then he leaned in and their lips met. They stood there for a good five minutes kissing passionately, James' hands were starting to roam up Lily's top when …

"Ahem!"

Lily and James quickly broke apart. Heidi was standing before them with a very amused grin on her face. "I take it you two have made up then?"

"Did you want something?" James asked rather annoyed at the interruption.

"What? Oh yeh, you've to come back to the common room, like, now. Sirius is nearly wetting himself out of frustration and excitement. And Gail said, and I quote, 'Get them two lovebirds back here before they embarrass themselves by shagging in the corridor'."

"What! Shagging in the corridor?" James said outraged. "Why would we do that when there is a perfectly good broom cupboard just over there!"

But nobody was listening as Lily and Heidi had started on their way back to the common room. Laughing!

"Hey! Wait for me!" James shouted out.

Lily was feeling much better now. After making up with James she felt all fluffy inside. If the rest of the day carried on like this, this could very well be the best day of her life to date. She was walking along the corridor with Heidi, who indeed had a very knowing smirk on her face, but right now, Lily didn't care. They reached the portrait hole as James finally caught up with them.

"Flobberworm." Heidi said to the fat lady. But she wasn't listening because she was caught up in a very heated argument with a monk, apparently about who was the better singer. Lily laughed, and this is what caused the fat lady to turn indignantly to the newcomers.

"Do you not think my voice has an opera quality to it? I'll have you know in my day, I was a very successful opera singer -"

"Ha! In your dreams," snorted the monk. "Don't mind her, but she likes to fantasise about something she never has and never will achieve. Whereas I on the other hand actually possess talent -"

"FLOBBERWORM!" James shouted. The constant bickering must have been getting on his nerves.

The fat lady indeed looked very startled at this outburst. "Well, really now. There was no need to shout." as she opened the portrait into the common room.

James let out a very exasperated sigh.

Inside the common room was an interesting sight. Lily made her way over to the couch, sitting next to Gail and Clara, while James sat in the armchair nearest the Christmas tree and Heidi in the other comfy chair.

Remus' self-restraint had indeed been broken. He was currently shaking the contents of every single present trying to guess what was in them. Neither Remus nor Sirius had even noticed the three of them enter and were oblivious to everyone staring at them and snickering.

"Ooh, this is definitely a book …" Remus was saying. "Hey, it's Prongs'.

"Put the present down, Moony," James said trying not to laugh. "Step away slowly and calm down."

"James!" both Sirius and Remus exclaimed.

"Great!" Sirius was literally quivering with excitement. "We can open presents now!"

"Padfoot, if you don't calm down, I'm going to tell everyone here about your little incident that happened earlier," James threatened. "But it will be even better as I will invent things to humiliate you even more."

Sirius immediately stopped fidgeting around and sat straight-backed where he was. "Remus, you're welcome to distribute the presents," he said in a level voice.

Remus meanwhile was trying very hard on fighting back a smile. But was failing miserably.

"Moony, just let it all out," James was saying. "You know you want to laugh."

He did. And he didn't stop for a whole two minutes.

"Hello!" Clara shouted over Remus. "Presents need opening!"

Remus calmed down and separated everyone's presents into separate piles. Lily reached over to grab hers and proceeded to start opening them.

The first one she picked up was quite small and it was from her parents. Unwrapping the paper, it turned out to be a beautiful silver necklace with her birth sign on it, Scorpio, with a tiny emerald in the centre. Opening presents from her other relatives, turned out to be either clothes or sweets. Also noting that she got nothing from Petunia. Though that was to be expected, but Lily always sent her sister a present.

Starting on the presents from her friends, she picked up one that looked unmistakably like a book, and it was. It was a muggle book called 'Nicholas Nickleby' by Charles Dickins. Lily had mentioned once to Remus that she had never read Charles Dickins but wanted to and this was what she wanted to read. Smiling, she thanked Remus and set it aside. Though Lily didn't think he was listening cause he was absorbed in eating a box full of chocolate frogs that Peter had got him. She had also got sweets from Peter. Clara, Gail and Heidi had all bought her make-up while Mandy (other dorm mate) had got her a 'Beatles' CD. Mandy was also muggle born so she knew about these things, including that Lily loved the 'Beatles'.

The next present in the pile was in a box and looked quite suspicious. 'I think I'll leave that one to last'. Lily leaned over to pick up the last one, when …

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" came a scream from Lily's left.

Whipping around, she saw Clara running out of her seat over to the other side of the common room with a terrified look on her face. The reason for this was crawling along on the couch towards Gail, who had indeed escaped over to where her friend was. Lily leaped out off the couch too, as the most enormous spider was scuttling towards her. Honestly, it was HUGE with a black hairy body and massive legs. Lily HATED spiders. She was frozen to the spot with fear.

The thing that brought her back down to earth was the distant laughing she heard. Then it got louder. And louder. Shifting her head slightly to glance at the three boys, but keep the spider in sight, the situation appeared highly suspicious. Considering how much the boys were enjoying their obvious terror, Lily put two and two together and made four.

Glaring at James, Sirius and Remus she came to the conclusion that they all deserved to die a very, very, very slow and painful death. They carried on laughing until Remus looked up and seen Lily's face.

"Um guys, I don't think Lily looks very pleased." Remus said worriedly.

Indeed, Lily was fuming. Looking over to where Gail and Clara were, they had the same thing in mind to Lily. The three of them deserved to die.

Then there came a voice near the fire that made Lily jump slightly. "Don't worry Lily, I'll deal with the spider," Heidi said. "Why don't you and the girls put into action what you're all undoubtedly plotting? But tell me, how ARE you going to make their deaths as painful as possible?"

At this, the boys looked very scared. "It was his idea!" the three of them yelled at the same time. Both James and Remus were pointing at an extremely guilty looking Sirius while he was pointing at the other two. But Lily was not fooled. Sirius Black was definitely the guilty party in this. But she was still going to kill the other two.

"Right!" Lily said with a manic gleam in her eye as she glared at James. The said person, looking VERY worried. "Clara, you can kill Sirius. Gail, you're with Remus. And I'll deal with James."

"Right boys, split up!" Sirius yelled.

"AAAAAH!" James, Remus and Sirius yelled as the girls ran after them.

Lily chased James around the common room as he tried to dodge her. He darted over to an armchair and put it between them.

"Now, Evans," James said breathlessly, "you don't really mean to do this? It WAS Sirius' idea.

Like that made any difference. Lily leapt over the chair to reach James, but he was too quick. He dashed across the room and flew up the boys' staircase. Lily attempted to follow him straight away, but someone flying through the air and knocking into you does create a certain distraction. It was Sirius.

Clara had obviously hexed him, because he was sporting green hair and since he had a flying lesson, a very strong Expelliarmus spell must have been directed at him.

They were both sprawled on the floor with Sirius on top of Lily and he said, "Why hello Lily, lovely morning to be -"

"Get off me Black!" Lily growled as she shoved him off.

"Yes ma'am," Sirius said as he saluted her before going back into combat with Clara.

Before anything else could distract her, Lily made her way up the boys' staircase. Running up three steps at a time. Finally she reached the door into James' dorm. It was slightly ajar.

Opening it slowly, she peeked her head around the door. Lily wasn't sure what she was going to find, so she had to be careful. But what Lily did find was James standing by the end of his bed leaning against one of the posts. He had his arms crossed and a lazy air about him. James looked at Lily cockily and said, "Morning Evans, nice to finally see you," he looked at his watch, "What took you so long?"

Putting on an angry face, Lily marched right up to him. Unfortunately she only came up as far as his nose, so lost any advantage she could hold over him. James had obviously noticed this as he smirked.

"Do you want me to sit down then?" he asked with a grin.

Lily glared at him with her hands on her hips.

"Did you ever know that you look so beautiful when you're angry?"

"Stop trying to distract me," Lily snapped.

James lifted his hand and ran his fingers through Lily's hair and gave her that … look. His hazel eyes had all of a sudden gone soft and endearing. Lily knew what he was trying to do. But how could she stop herself from falling for it. Now there's a challenge! Lily bit her lip and tried to say something … but couldn't. 'Oh no, what am I gonna do now?'

"Aren't you meant to be doing some grievous bodily harm to me by now," James whispered huskily into her ear.

Lily breathed in and caught his scent. That made her relax and feel comforted. But this wasn't meant to be happening. Lily scolded herself for making herself responsible for James. She should have gone with Remus or Sirius. At least with them, Lily wasn't likely to end up snogging them.

Peering into James' eyes, Lily knew that it wasn't possible for her to be horrible to him. His seduction was just too damn overpowering. So instead of battling against her desire, she gave in.

Stepping back slightly, she put her hands up to his chest and pushed him so he fell onto his bed. James at first was surprised by this but then settled himself. He looked up at her and Lily knew instantly what he was thinking. He just looked so inviting. Lily climbed onto his bed and pinned him down by sitting on top of him.

"And the motive of this is …?" James asked with a smile on his face.

"Does it matter?" Lily whispered as she leaned in closer to kiss him sweetly on the lips.

"What is taking them so long?" Sirius sighed exasperatedly.

He was sitting on the couch with Clara, minus his green hair. Heidi was sitting over by the window reading a book and Remus and Gail were sitting down by the fire.

Their feuds with each other had fizzled out ten minutes before when all of them broke down completely and couldn't stop laughing.

"Well," Gail started. "Let's look at this logically. Lily. James. In bedroom. Together."

Sirius twigged on and gaped. "They wouldn't … I mean … now? …"

"Yes they could," Heidi said as she closed her book and came over and sat in an armchair. "I mean they were practically doing it in the corridor before I interrupted them."

"Oh that's terrible isn't it Padfoot?" Remus said sarcastically. "I think you're going to have to go up there and sort them out."

Sirius was looking scandalised, while everyone else had smiles playing on their lips.

Getting up to lean against the end of the couch by Sirius, Gail put her head in her hand. "I don't know why you're so outraged, at least he isn't as bad as you."

Glaring at Gail, Sirius was getting worried now, "What do you mean?" he said in a threatening voice.

Standing up so she could make a quick escape if need be, Gail replied, "Oh nothing," but she still had that knowing look on her face, and it was irritating the living hell out of Sirius.

"I think I'm going to go and see what Lily's doing," Clara announced. She was looking very nervous and obviously didn't want to be in the room when Gail finally told.

"I'll go too," Sirius said quickly getting up to try and follow Clara. But Gail had her hand on his shoulder and shoved him back down.

"You would like that, wouldn't you?" Gail said, still with that bloody smile!

"Ooh, tell me," Remus said excitedly as he came and sat next to Sirius. "Who is it this time?"

Sirius groaned. Why did everyone have to be so interested in his private life?

"We shouldn't be doing this right now," James said in between kisses. "The others will be wondering what's taking us so long." To be honest, he wasn't sure if that would stop Lily. And of course, he didn't really want things to stop either. But it did look as if things were going to get a lot more heated.

Lily was at this present moment in time, undoing James shirt. Which she must have been finding very difficult as their lips never left each other. But she managed it.

Sitting up, she gave James a funny look. "Yeh, we probably should stop. But do you really want to?" Lily said giving him a questioning stare.

James smiled as he looked up at the gorgeous red head sitting on top of him. Indeed, Lily undressing him was one of his fantasies. And this only being the second time in his life that this was happening … "Carry on, by all means."

Lily took off his shirt to reveal his chest. For some strange reason, girls always seemed to like that part of his body. It was all thanks to Quidditch really. All the training had given him a fabulously toned body and a six-pack. Lily started kissing his chest which sent tingles up and down James' body. Wow, this girl was brilliant.

Running a hand up and down Lily's back, he found what he was looking for. James unclipped her bra. This was a sort of talent of James'. He had a great skill in unclipping girls' bras, single-handedly while they're still wearing a top. Something he was quite proud of.

Smiling, Lily obliged and took her bra off from under her t-shirt and flung it on the floor and continued kissing him. The passion between the two of them was unbelievable. The chemistry was so evident, it surrounded their very beings. James' hormones had taken over his senses again. He couldn't control himself any longer. It was going to happen. Now.

James wanted Lily so much. He needed her. Lily was just in the process of taking her t-shirt off when …

"Lily! James!"

James was so shocked, he sat up in surprise. Lily jumped and all this caused her to fall off his bed.

He had no idea how to react to the situation. Clara was just standing there by the door with her mouth wide open and eyes nearly popping out of her head. So he gave her a rather frustrated look and said, "Can't a guy get any privacy in this place?"

"Hello Lily," Clara finally managed to say. "Yes, I can see you hiding down there. Hmm, this is a new way to kill someone. What were you gonna do? Shag him to death?" And she couldn't say anymore as she burst out laughing.

James could then hear another set of feet running up the stairs. Whoever it was must have heard Clara yell.

Sirius entered the room and instantly donned his evil grin. "Well, look what we have here."

No, the situation did not look very good. James sitting on his bed with no shirt on and Lily's bra on the floor.

"It's not what you think -" James started.

"Oh, don't give us that one, James," Clara said. "From what I saw, Lily was doing all the leading AND you WERE going to do it!"

James was stunned by this. "How long were you standing there?"

"Long enough. But then Lily was gonna take her top off and I really didn't want to see that."

"Clara!" Lily said astonished.

"You Perv!" James yelled.

And all this while, Sirius was uncontrollably laughing in the background.

"Oh shut up Padfoot," James growled. "At least we weren't shagging in the bath tub!"

Sirius straightened up instantly and his laughter died away. He glared at James angrily. Clara appeared extremely guilty as she shifted from foot to foot and wouldn't look anyone in the eye.

Silence.

"Clara! You didn't!" Lily exclaimed, breaking the tension.

Christmas lunch was an interesting affair Lily thought. The Great Hall was bedecked with its usual twelve Christmas trees each decorated with something different. Some were decorated with heat-resistant icicles, some with real live fairies. The ceiling looked like the sky outside. At the moment it was a clear blue sky with the sun shining, but to step outside, there would be a distinct icy chill. Quite a lot of students had stayed for Christmas this year, Lily noticed. They were the only seventh year Gryffindors but there were quite a few younger students sitting at their table.

Glancing over at the Slytherin table, Lily saw Snape sitting there with a group of nasty looking people. And Jacob Meadows. Lily shivered and looked away. She did not want Snape ruining her Christmas, though he had very nearly achieved that yesterday.

Taking her mind off Snape, she sat down next to James at the Gryffindor table, while Clara sat on her right. Sirius was on James' left while Remus, Gail and Heidi sat opposite them.

"Lily, do you really think it's a good idea to be sitting next to Prongs here," Sirius said in a serious voice.

Lily stared at him, "I don't see why not, Black."

"Well, you might end up undressing each other, and the rest of us don't want to see that."

Everyone except Lily and James snorted at that remark.

"Shut up, Sirius," James growled as he hit Sirius over the head.

But they all seemed to be looking at Lily and James. This really irritated Lily.

"What?" she snapped. "It's not like we ended up doing anything. Sirius has done worse!"

"Hey, why do you always have to bring me into this?" Sirius said huffily.

"Cause you're a male-slut," James said matter-of-factly.

It was Sirius' turn to hit James.

"Ow, that hurt," James whined, rubbing his head

"It was meant to."

"You know, I could tell everyone here very interesting things about you -"

"That's blackmail!"

"All you've got to do is admit is that you're worse than me," James stated.

And before Sirius could answer back, Dumbledore stood up from the teacher's table and tapped his spoon against his glass. The whole hall fell silent. "Merry Christmas everyone. As you're all probably eager to start the feast, I'll be brief. I want to remind everybody that the lake is closed for ice skating today due to thinning of the ice and that a new caretaker will be starting on the first day of the next term, Mr Filch, who is with us to enjoy our excellent feast." Dumbledore put his hands together to clap and the students followed suit. Though it was rather unenthusiastic, due to the appearance of Mr Filch. He looked rather scrawny and the scowl on his face seemed permanently etched there. His clothes were rather mouldy and had long untidy hair. "Anyway, enough of my blabbering. Tuck in."

And all four tables instantly filled up with the most delicious food imaginable. This is what Lily loved about Hogwarts feasts. They were always so grand and the food always plentiful. Helping herself to some turkey, she began eating.

"Hey, what do you thinks happened to old Pringle?" James wondered.

"I dunno, maybe he's finally had that nervous breakdown that has been threatening him since we arrived at the school," Sirius said through a mouthful of potatoes.

So, what did everyone get for Christmas?" Lily asked. "Since we didn't have time up in the common room due to the spider incident."

Sirius blushed. "It wasn't really my fault. Once an idea for a prank comes to mind, I can't make it go away unless I do it."

They carried on chatting away like this until the pudding came. All the other food disappeared from the tables to be replaced by huge Christmas Puddings. They were Lily's favourite dessert and looked at them longingly. She had just scooped a generous helping into her bowl and had poured lots of cream over it when Sirius and Remus started acting very strange. Sirius kept looking over his shoulder to the Slytherin table and Remus also kept peering over in that direction. Nobody else seemed to know what was going on.

James was the first to twig on. "Oh no, Padfoot, what have you done now?" he groaned as he hid his face in his hands.

Curious to what was going on, Lily looked over to the Slytherin table.

A second later, as the Slytherins were tucking into their Christmas Puddings, a huge explosion was heard. Then some high pitched whistling. Then more horrific bangs. It seemed like a hundred fireworks were going off in the Great Hall. There was many people screaming, most of them Slytherins. Everyone else seemed to be laughing. Lily found the reason for that. Peering again over at the Slytherins, she noticed every single one of them covered in a sort of sticky brown substance.

Looking back over at Remus and Sirius, she gave them a very serious look. They were wetting themselves laughing. They never noticed Lily looking at them until they glanced up again to see the damaged they had caused. James was still sitting there next to Lily with his face in his hands. He obviously hadn't known about this and just knew that he was going to get the blame for this as well as the other two.

She put her arm round him and glared at the other two. Nobody seemed to be paying any attention to her. Heidi, Clara and Gail were standing on their seats so they could get a better view of the humiliated Slytherins. They seemed to think it was hilarious. Well, it may have been a little funny, but that wasn't the point. It was wrong. But Meadows and Snape certainly deserved it though …

'Stop making excuses for their childish behaviour!'

"Exploding Christmas Puddings!" Lily shouted at Sirius and Remus, though they only just heard her over the rest of the noise in the hall.

"Oh come on Lily," Clara shouted breathlessly. "Even you've got to find THIS funny," and then she squealed, "Look at Snape!"

Lily couldn't help it. She had to turn around. And there was Snape. He was covered in it from head to toe! He was obviously trying to throw bits at other people on the Hufflepuff table, but without much success. Every time he threw at bit, it would change direction and whack him instead. And every time a Slytherin came near anyone not in their house, they would be magically thrown back to prevent them covering anyone else in their filth. Lily had to admit, Sirius and Remus were geniuses. They thought of everything, except …

"SILENCE!"

The whole hall stopped in its tracks. Dumbledore was standing up at the teacher's table and his eyes roamed over everyone in the room. He looked mad, but Lily wasn't entirely sure if he really was, because he seemed to be fighting back a smile.

Lily looked around, and could see what was so amusing. All the Slytherins were dripping in Christmas Pudding, and appeared absolutely ridiculous. Every shred of dignity they may have had before had been stripped from them and indeed replaced by Christmas Pudding. She was finding it extremely difficult now, not to laugh out loud.

Sirius and Remus were having a much more difficult time of behaving than Lily was. Remus was leaning forward in his seat and had his fist stuffed in his mouth to prevent himself from laughing, though the effort was making his face turn red. Sirius however, resorted to sitting under the table in a fit of silent giggles, with tears of joy running down his face.

"Potter! Black! Lupin!" Professor McGonagall's voice rang through the hall. "My Office! NOW!"

This was it. James just knew it. He was already in Professor McGonagall's bad books as it was. Now he was going to be chucked out for sure. He got up and grabbed hold of Sirius. If he was going to be walking to his impending doom, he wasn't doing it alone.

Remus managed to get up on his own, but with difficulty. James had to literally drag Sirius along with him.

James couldn't really remember the next hour. Terrible that. But luckily he got off. Sirius and Remus turned out to actually be a tiny bit decent and insisted that he had nothing to do with the incident. But that was of course after McGonagall and Sirius got into one of their routinely arguments. Yes, I know that is sad, but it happens every time Sirius is in her office. He thinks that somehow he will get off on a lighter punishment (or skip it completely), but never works. Just gets into worse trouble. That afternoon for instance …

"Oh come on, Professor," Sirius pleaded, "you've got to admit you found it a little bit funny?"

"They could have been seriously hurt!" McGonagall fumed. She looked rather like a bull, with steam coming out of her nose and ears.

"But the Slytherins deserved it," Sirius insisted.

"I don't care!" McGonagall screamed. She was trying to look threatening, but didn't really work as Sirius was taller than her.

Sirius smiled. He always enjoyed getting McGonagall rattled like that. Later on, he would claim all the credit for driving off Pringle, no doubt. Maybe he could drive McGonagall away as well? Hmm, that's a possibility that's never been considered. 'Must think on that. I'll inform Padfoot about that later on.'

Then the next comment really did finish Sirius off. "You know, you'll burst a blood vessel if you keep fuming like that," he said cockily with a slight tilt of his head. "I mean, someone of your age should be resting more, not berating students for something as small as humiliating a bunch of slime balls."

'Ouch, Sirius, ouch. Bad comment, very bad thing to say. Note to self: never insult a teacher, especially when you're already in trouble. You're basically signing your own death wish.'

"DETENTION!"

That was to be expected.

James was sitting in the common room. It was approximately 10pm. Sirius and Remus were late. For their punishment they had to clean the Great Hall. For once, James was glad he wasn't part of the prank. He had memories of cleaning the Great Hall after a prank. And they were bad memories, very bad. Shaking his head, he tried to banish those thoughts. To distract himself, he went back to the book he was reading. It was called, "How to take over the world in 30 days". It really was quite amusing. It was a sort of jokey, comical book. He was currently reading the part where there was a list of a hundred things not to do. For example, 'don't tell your prisoner every detail of your plan before you intend to kill them, cause if they escape you are royally screwed' and 'Never have a weakness as the hero will undoubtedly find out what it is and conquer you.' It really was ridiculous but it made James laugh. So it wasn't a surprise when it turned out to be from Sirius. His friend really was demented in that strange sort of way.

James heard the portrait hole open and turned round to see who was coming in. It was Lily, Clara and Gail. Strange, he never heard or saw them go out.

"Hello," Lily said cheerfully as she sat on his knee.

Putting his book down he put his arms around Lily. "Hey Gorgeous, where'd you go?"

She put on that … smile. The one that totally made James' heart melt. He screwed his eyes shut and then opened them again.

Lily was fluttering her eyelashes now. "Why we had a snowball fight, Jamie boy."

James looked confused. "What, now? But it's dark."

Lily tilted her head and said, "Where's the fun in a snowball fight when you can see your opponent? It is much better in the dark. You should try it sometime." She started to play with James hair at that point.

James looked at her quizzically. "Are you sure you didn't do anything else?"

"Yes I am sure. Why?"

"Cause you're acting very twirly."

Lily playfully hit his arm. "Hey, that's my word. Don't steal it."

"Only if you kiss me," James said teasingly.

"Oh, I think I can stretch to that," Lily said in an over dramatic lazy manor as she leaned down and kissed James very sweetly on the lips.

The whole sensation of Lily Evans kissing him drove James wild. His hormones never stayed in place whenever this happened, ever. He always wanted to go that little bit further. But of course doing that in the common room with your friends all around you, that is not a very good idea. So for the moment, James stuck with the kissing, which was a reward in itself.

"Put her down, Prongs," came a voice, "we don't want a repeat of the fiasco from earlier on."

It was Sirius. James, with no intention of stopping stuck his middle finger up at his friend.

The next second something very unexpected happened. A cold rush of freezing water had suddenly been poured all over his and Lily's heads. Letting go of Lily out of pure shock, James stood straight up while Lily landed with a thump on the floor.

James was absolutely sopping wet. He leapt over the armchair, advancing on Sirius and said furiously, "You are so dead!"

Sirius had stopped over by the window clutching his side as he was laughing so much. James extracted his wand from his pocket and pointed it at his friend. Sirius put his hands up defensively and said breathlessly, "Oh come on, you poured water all over me this morning. I mean it's only fair.

"I seem to recall it was your idea in the first place to pour it on me," James growled.

"Yeh, I know," Sirius said with a smile, "but that kinda backfired, didn't it? So logically, I had to get you back."

James was about to retort something back when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun round and came face to face with Lily who was smiling.

"Calm down, it's Christmas." She proceeded to perform a drying spell on them both and then she pulled him into a hug.

James withdrew himself. "I'm being a prat, aren't I?"

"Yes," Sirius and Lily replied in unison.

Everybody seemed to be staring at him, so went and sat down on the sofa, hoping to get some of the heat taken off him. Lily sat next to him and Sirius sat in an armchair. Clara and Heidi burst out laughing as James was trying but failing to act as if nothing had happened.

"Hey, where's Moony?" James enquired, ignoring the girls' giggling at his expense.

He's … uh …" Sirius was looking wildly around the room. Frowning slightly, he said, "I was sure he was right behind me when we came in."

"Well I never saw him," James said.

"Yeh, well, that's cause you were too busy snogging Evans here."

James glared at his friend, as did Lily. "I swear, if you come out with another snarky comment like that again -"

"I was just stating a fact!" Sirius said. "Were you or were you not snogging Lily Evans? And did you or did you not unnecessarily stick your finger up at me?"

"Yes I was and that finger was totally necessary!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Guys, break it up!" Lily yelled. "We do not need the two of you arguing about something as silly as this!"

"Ooh, this is the Head Girl talking here" Sirius said teasingly, "You going to take points away? Put me in detention? Totally doable if it involved going to your dorm, us two alone, maybe some chocolate sauce as well. I'd be very willing."

James reached over and hit Sirius very hard on the arm. "Will you stop hitting on my girlfriend!"

"Since when have I been your girlfriend?" Lily looked at him questionably. "I do not remember at any time during the course of today me agreeing to become your girlfriend. And if I'm thinking right, you haven't even asked me."

A few seconds of stunned silence followed where James had to take this in.

"Precisely!" Sirius broke the silence. "So it is completely alright for me to hit on Lily. She's a free agent and so am I -"

Lily darling, will you go out with me?" James said as he turned to the girl next to him, completely ignoring Sirius.

"Sure," Lily replied as she snuggled into him.

"- so if I want to … oh. Bastard."

James frowned as what Sirius had said had just registered in his brain. "Wait a minute, haven't you got a girlfriend?"

"Oh yeh," Sirius said vaguely as if he'd only just remembered.

"Sirius, have you been drinking?" Clara piped up, not sounding exactly pleased. 'No wonder,' James thought, 'especially when she is one of the girls Sirius is shagging behind his girlfriend's back.'

"No, why?"

"Because you're being very …"

"Twirly," Lily helped.

"Yeh, that," Clara said as she nodded at her friend and continued to stare at Sirius.

"I'm just being my normal self," Sirius fidgeted in his chair, as everybody seemed to be staring at him now. "Can I help it if this is who I am?"

"Sirius, you cannot be yourself for one reason," Lily said matter-of-factly.

And when she did not carry on, Sirius was starting to get a little annoyed. "Do you wish to expand on that …?"

Lily sighed. "You have missed one vital observation in this room. I mean it is practically right under your nose. And since I have spotted it before you, I have come to the conclusion that you are becoming slow-witted in your old age."

"Hey, I resent that. But you're gonna have to tell me what you're going on about.

"Am I really going to have to spell this out to you?"

"Yes."

Lily leaned over to whisper in Clara and Heidi's ears. Then it struck James. Where was Gail? And Remus happened to be missing as well. That was it! He could not believe Sirius had not got it. James put a very knowing smile on his face and it seemed to irritaite Sirius for some strange reason. There really was something wrong with him this evening.

"Now Sirius," Lily spoke to him as if he were a two year old who didn't understand one plus one. "Remus is absent from us presently, correct?"

"Uh huh."

"Can you think of no one else who isn't here?"

At last, it dawned on him. After so long, Sirius finally got it.

"Oh my GOD! Which way did they go?"

"I seem to recall Remus leading Gail up to his dorm," Heidi said.

Sirius shot out of his chair and made for the boys' staircase. The rest followed behind him. James was just glad it wasn't him this time. Now Moony was going to get humiliated.

The door banged open. James noticed that the room was in complete darkness and couldn't see a thing as he squinted over Sirius' shoulder. Then there was a scream, a thump as if something falling out of bed and a figure arose from Moony's bed.

Sirius put the lights on and everybody saw Remus tripping over something as he tried to stand up straight.

Everybody else came into the room as Sirius said, "Well, well, well. Look what we have here."

"It's not what you think," Remus came out with rather lamely.

"Please do, fill us in, if we are so wrongly informed," James said as he looked politely interested.

"Um … I was … um," Remus appeared extremely uncomfortable now. "Uh … doing my homework … yeh, that's it."

"In the dark?"

"Uh … yeh," he replied as he nervously twiddled with his shirt sleeve.

"But that still doesn't explain why your shirt is open," Lily put in with a mischievous smile, "and I believe you have indeed lost a few buttons. Now I wonder how that could have happened?"

"Well I …" Remus was searching for words as he gestured with his hands in the air.

"Yes …" Sirius prompted.

"Gail ripped your shirt off in sheer desperation so she could reach your temple of a body," Heidi put in, "so it wouldn't hold up her desire to shag you like a total maniac. Therefore the buttons popping off may seem insignificant to you now, but are major clues to us, telling us what you two were up to."

"Exactly!" Lily agreed.

"Oh, I give up," said a voice. It was Gail. She emerged from under Remus' bed with her hair all over her face and looking very messy. "Honestly, you can't get any peace in this place!" And she stalked very haughtily out of the room ignoring all her friends' grins and comments.

"Right, let's get this party started!"

Sirius, James, Remus, Gail, Lily, Clara and Heidi were all in the Three Broomsticks down in Hogsmeade. This was another one of their traditions: to get drunk.

They were all sitting at a long table near to the fireplace and Sirius had just bought the drinks. Sirius sat to the right of Clara and Heidi, while James was on the end of the table to his right. Lily opposite him who had Remus and Gail on her right.

"Seriously, are you trying to get us drunk," Lily sniffed her drink and made a face.

"Oh yes! We all have to get so rat-arsed tonight, we will not be able to remember our own names!"

"But you did that last year," James interrupted.

But Sirius wasn't listening as he picked up his glass and downed it in one go.

"I thought breaking ourselves in gently was usually the plan, Sirius," Remus said as he too grabbed his drink.

"What the hell is this?" Clara put in, "It smells like disinfectant.

But Sirius was again distracted, as a pretty blonde had just walked into the bar. Clara took out her finger and turned his head towards her. Sirius jumped slightly as he saw the look on Clara's face. Now what was it? Annoyance? Cause she was giving him her pissed of Clara glare. Ooh, that was a dangerous look. But he suddenly found that he couldn't say anything. Funny how that always seemed to happen whenever Clara was around. She had an effect on him. Which was not good.

"Padfoot, you're drooling."

Sirius spun round to see James smirking at him. "Am not," as he wiped his mouth with his hand.

The rest of them burst out laughing. 'Oh lovely,' Sirius thought, 'I buy them drinks and they laugh at me. Wonderful.'

"These are vodks shots, aren't they?" Lily asked.

Sirius put on his evil grin. "Maybe."

"Right, I say we all down these at the same time," James announced as he lifted up his glass. "It may be totally revolting, but we have one goal for this evening -"

"Oh, hang on a moment," Sirius interrupted. "I'll go get another drink."

The girls rolled their eyes and he distinctly heard one of them mutter under their breath, "Typical."

When Sirius got back from the bar, which took at least five minutes cause he was being chatted up by the pretty blonde, he sat down and said to James with a nod of his head, "You may continue."

"Thank you," James glared at his friend. Then turning his attention to the matter in hand. "Anyway, as I was saying. We have one goal for this evening. Just one. We may not remember what that is in a couple of hours time, but then that will be mission accomplished. What I am trying to say is, we have all got to get so smashed tonight, we are indeed going to forget who we are, where we go to school, where we sleep and most importantly of all …" he paused for a dramatic silence, then … "Sirius, what is the most important point of all …?"

Sirius frowned, "How am I meant to know? Moony?"

"Don't ask me, I haven't got a clue."

"Fine," James said exasperatedly. He raised his glass, the others following suit, and said, "To alcohol!"

"To alcohol!" everyone chanted as they all clinked glasses. They downed the drinks and slammed the empty glasses upside down on the table.

An hour and several drinks later the gang were still to be found in the Three Broomsticks. Sirius was to be found making an arse of himself at the bar as he tried to chat up the pretty blonde. The key word being 'trying' as he wasn't having success. She had another guy on her other side who looked to be her boyfriend. She was just completely ignoring Sirius as he prattled on about any sort of rubbish he could think of. James knew his friend far too well. Sirius was probably going on about how fascinating grass was or something. James had even heard his friend go on about how the sky was really pink instead of blue. He said everybody was colourblind apart from him. But of course that night Sirius had had several shots of Tequila and Absinth. He didn't only see the Green Fairy that night, he saw a whole new world full of solid reflections. Which according to Sirius is the only way to see the world around you.

Clara and Heidi were having a great time, James noted. They were at the other side of the room with a couple of guys who looked to be in their mid twenties. The one Clara was sitting with had long dark hair which was tied back into a ponytail. James thought he recognised him, but couldn't think where he might have seen him before. Heidi seemed to be talking non-stop to a guy with long ginger hair who also had it tied back. Both the guys looked quite similar in their faces and James just figured that they were brothers. Well at least the girls were having a good time. Heidi certainly seemed to come out of her shell, which always happened when she got drunk. I mean honestly, you couldn't shut Heidi up when she got like that. There was one time, which was incidently the same time Sirius got drunk and started seing solid reflections, Heidi talked about talking too much. Come to think of it, that was last Christmas all that had happened. Though James and Lily admittedly didn't see too much of it as they sneaked off in the middle of the night to be on their own in the 'Room Of Requirement'.

While James was lost in his thoughts of what had happened the previous Christmas, a sharp poke in his side woke him up. He turned round to see Lily with an earnest look on her beautiful face.

"Can we go somewhere else, James," Lily said with a pleading note in her voice. She pointed to her right, "They're making out on us."

Remus and Gail were snogging. Again. James was surprised they could breathe with the intensity flowing through them.

"Sure, lets go outside, it's hot in here anyway."

Lily and James wrapped up and made their way outside. James didn't actually feel all that cold, but that was probably the alcohol in his system.

They put their arms around each and cuddled against the biting cold. Snow was everywhere and was beginning to seep into James' shoes. They were about to move off when a particularly sharp breeze went down his neck. James couldn't help but shiver.

"Shit, I've left my scarf inside," James chattered. "I'll just pop back inside and get it. I won't be long." and he kissed Lily briefly on the lips and made his way back inside.

He opened the door and the heat of the place just hit him. He would have fallen over if it wasn't for the crowd of people around him. It really had got a lot busier. But of course he wasn't surprised. Nobody was likely to want to stay outside when there was a lovely warm pub to come into.

James glanced over to where Heidi and Clara were again. Heidi and the ginger haired guy were snogging. It was probably the only way he could find for her to shut up. But Clara and the dark haired guy were still chatting normally, ignoring the other two. Something was still niggling at the back of James' mind about him. And for some reason. James didn't think it was good. There seemed to be something bad surrounding him, but James just couldn't put his finger on it. Deciding that he wouldn't be very popular if he went over and pulled them apart because he had 'a funny feeling' he left them alone. Clara probably wasn't interested in him anyway. She was far to infatuated with Sirius.

And speaking of Sirius, he was still over at the bar attempting to get the pretty blonde's attention. It wasn't looking good at the moment. The girl still had her back to him, but Sirius wasn't giving up that easily. He was grabbing her arm to try pulling her around to face him. Through all of this, the boyfriend on the other side was getting angrier by the second. It didn't look long before there was going to be an explosion. James thought it best to go over and lead Sirius away from the obvious danger, even if he himself didn't see it. He would drag Sirius if necessary.

'Damn, if Remus wasn't so busy snogging Gail, he would've spotted this before me.' James grabbed his scarf and hit Remus over the head. He didn't see the angry look his friend gave him because he was busy pointing at Sirius.

"What the fu-," Remus started. Then it dawned on him as he followed James' finger. "Oh."

"YOU LOWLIFE, GIRLFRIEND SNATCHING BASTARD!" was the next thing to be heard before anyone could say anything else.

James and Remus had been too late. The boyfriend had erupted and flung a punch at Sirius. Normally Sirius would be very good at avoiding getting hurt like this, but that was only achieved when he was sober. This time, fist met eye and Sirius fell over backwards into the nearest table and chairs with a sickening crash.

The whole room went silent. Everyone was staring at Sirius. He was still on the ground, unable to get up. The boyfriend looked as if he were about to kick Sirius while he was down, but a man from behind the bar restrained him. James and Remus rushed over to a severly bruised Sirius and helped him up. Sirius didn't say a thing, he just obliged to his friends support.

"Both of you, get out of here! NOW!" the Landlady screamed at them. She was a large woman and was not to be messed with.

James and Remus helped Sirius out after gathering his things. Though the walk from the bar to the door was extremely long as Sirius kept stumbling and falling over. Just as they reached the door, James peered over to where Clara was sitting. She gave Sirius a very disgusted and disappointed glare and pointedly looked away.

Finally, the three of them made it outside. Sirius was still making it difficult for them to support him. But it was necessary, because Sirius would be on the floor if he was left to his own devises. Sirius looked up at James and gave him a very silly grin while he said, "I was bad, wasn't I?"

"You have no idea, Sirius," James replied gravely. "You probably won't even remember this by morning. But your hangover is gonna be hell."

"Cool …" Sirius trailed off before he began to snore.

Remus looked up at James after peering disgustedly at his very pissed friend. "He isn't?" knowing full well what the answer was going to be.

James sighed. "He is."

"He was like this last Christmas. Except from the fighting, of course."

A door opened behind them and Clara, Heidi and Gail stepped out.

"How is he?" Gail asked, trying to act relatively sober herself. But she was given away by the way she staggered towards Remus and had to hold onto him to keep herself from falling.

Remus looked as if were going to collapse under all the weight put on him. Clara noticed this and put her arm around Gail to steady her.

"He's asleep," James simply stated. "Totally pissed as a fart. And I'd say you and Heidi aren't that far off either. So I suggest we all get back up the castle sharpish."

"And Heidi, that means no being loud and waking up the staff," Remus pointed out. "We do not want to be in detention again for this."

"Wow, I really did miss a lot last year," James said in a surprised voice. Then he remembered Lily wasn't with them. "Hey, you guys go on ahead, I'll wait for Lily."

"Right, so you're leaving me to deal with a snoring Sirius, a pissed Gail, a talkative Heidi who will not shut up and Clara."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with me," Clara huffed.

"Precisely, Clara can help you," was James reply.

"Fine,"

And just before they separated on their own ways, Sirius gave out a particularly loud snore while muttering, "No don't let the killer bunnies get me! I want my mummy!"

Remus flicked his wand and levitated Sirius off the ground so he could take him back to castle more easily. He smiled, "Aah, the joys of blackmail."

James grinned as he turned his back on his friends. He didn't have a clue where Lily had gone so he decided to walk up the street a bit.

He had barely got fifty yards when he heard voices in a nearby alley way. The first was Lily's voice and the second was … Snape's.

'What the hell is Snape talking to Lily for?'

James leaned in closer to the outside wall and crept in as close as he could without them seeing or hearing him. He really was intrigued to what Snape wanted to talk to Lily about, especially now. James wrapped his cloak around him tighter in a futile attempt to protect himself from the biting cold wind and water had seeped further in to his shoes so his feet were soaking. But noticed this less and less the more he eavesdropped into the conversation.

"… than perfect, Evans," came Snape's sneering voice. "considering what happened only a few months ago."

"I just don't want you spreading vicious rumours," Lily said coldly. "People do not need to know. I thought that's what we agreed, Severus."

'What were they talking about?' James thought. 'What happened?'

"No, it wasn't," Snape sounded amused now. "It's what you demanded of me. I never said I'd keep it a secret. The reason I hadn't told anyone till recently was merely my decision."

James felt a wave of cold dread settle in his stomach. '_Oh god, this had better not be what I think it is.'_

"Why, you lowlife, scheming, manipulative little bastard!" Lily whispered threateningly. "Your head is stuck so far up your ass, you are totally oblivious to anyone elses feelings."

"Quite contrary, my dear Lily flower, I was -"

He was interrupted by a slap. "Don't call me that!"

"Ah, I suppose that right is only reserved for Potter is it?" Snape went on in a mocking tone. "Does he know the truth about our past?"

Silence.

'_Snape and Lily have a past? Please don't let this be what I think it is, please!'_

Lily appeared not to be able to say anything.

James was shivering, and it wasn't just the cold that was causing it. Just the thought of Snape and Lily …

He couldn't even bear to think about it. It had to be wrong, had to be.

He was frozen to the spot. He needed to find out.

Snape continued, "Oh, imagine how disappointed he's going to be when he finds out -"

"He's not going to find out. He doesn't need to know."

"Oh, but you seem to forget," Snape was laughing now. A cold mirthless laugh. "I've already told him."

"And the rest of Slytherin. Because of you, I had Jacob Meadows come on to me," Lily said, "Thinking I was easy prey. And I'll tell you another thing -"

"But you are easy prey," Snape sneered. "You were begging for it. Begging for me to take you to bed. Don't deny it. You wanted me."

A single tear escaped from James' eye. It was true. Snape was telling the truth.

James was feeling so betrayed, so stupid.

"That was a mistake. I was feeling vulnerable."

"Potter betrayed your trust. How do you know he won't do it again."

"That is in the past, just like our stupid mistake."

"Potter has always been the womaniser," Snape was provoking Lily now, "How do you know he won't move on and forget all about you? Because that's the sort of person he is. He'll never settle down with one girl. Never."

James had the incredible urge to go round there and hurt Snape so much, he'd be in the Hospital Wing for a week!

"You expect me to believe you?" Lily snided. "You've always been jealous of him. And you know what? He doesn't believe you. Why should he?

"I'm not surprised he doesn't believe me," Snape agreed. "I mean why would Lily Evans, perfect Head Girl, top student, sleep with Severus Snape, the school's resident slime ball?"

Silence.

James' heart had finally shattered.

Snape was sounding delighted now. "Because you were desperate. Therefore giving me an advantage. I have one up on him."

James couldn't listen to this anymore. He had to get away. Moving away from the wall, he battled his way through the fierce wind that had just picked up and slowly made progress back to the castle. Tears falling freely down his face.

Whew, finally I've finished it. I mean it's only taken me what? Eight months? Well to tell the truth I'd finished this months ago, I just haven't got round to posting it up till now.

Wow I loved writing this though. So much fun. See I told you the answer to Lily/Snape would be in this chapter. Bet ya didn't expect that that! Oh you did. Oh well. I thought I would be evil and do that to James. I've wanted to write that last bit for ages. I love it so much.

Aaaaaw, poor James though. I do actually feel sorry for him. He he, I'm gonna have fun with all this in the next chapter. But don't worry, Chapter Seven is not going to be totally depressing. I'm also gonna be having a little fun with Sirius' hangover. Muahahahaha.

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it is far too long. I mean I got to six pages and I realised I wasn't even halfway through. I do apologise for the length. But it had to be done.

So, you know what you have to do now that you've read this. Review, Review, Review, Review, Review, Review, Review.

PLEASE! Cause I would really love to know what you think. Also since this was incredibly long, what was your fave part in it? Personally, I loved my invention of the exploding Christmas puddings, a very drunk Sirius and of course the revelation at the end.

So you have to review now, or else I'll set all of my killer bunnies on you!

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


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